Teaching writing in learning development

Writing plays an essential role in Higher Education, as a tool for learning, as well as a tool for assessing the outcome of learning. Teaching students how to use ‘writing to learn’ and guiding them through ‘learning to write’ for assessment or future employment is a core task for Learning Developers. Exploring diverse definitions of writing drawn from academic literacies, and research in writing studies, this chapter makes the case for a conceptual approach that considers writing as a form of social interaction, as well as a cognitive process and examines the implications of this approach for teaching.

As outsiders in the majority of subjects our students are studying, Learning Developers cannot teach writing from a position of disciplinary expertise. The chapter considers how our role as mediators or guides to academic discourses can translate into a pedagogy of teaching how, rather than teaching what, and illustrates with examples of teaching practice how such an approach can be translated into specific teaching activities.