A Holistic Approach to Writing Research Articles for EFL Students:

An Online ESAP Genre Process Writing Course

By Bianca van de Water
In the Netherlands, English academic writing is predominantly taught in short introductory
EGAP courses at independent language centres external to the universities. However, it is
unlikely that a one-size-fits-all approach adequately meets either language demands or
learner needs, since the writing process is severed from the academic disciplines, discourse
communities, and the genres that function as the lifeblood of academia. In response to this
perceived gap in English language provision, this paper proposes a triadic approach to
teaching English academic writing, incorporating genre acquisition, discourse community
awareness and process writing. This integrated approach is discussed apropos to an online
ESAP course for writing research articles (RAs) intended for post-graduate students in the
humanities at Utrecht University. The purpose of this course is to teach graduate students to
write RAs that meet the discourse and genre conventions of English-language scientific
publications. Firstly, course design and structure will be described. Secondly, reading and
writing pedagogy will be discussed. Thirdly, critical perspectives in relation to language
demands and learner needs will be considered. Fourthly, the provision for student needs will
be outlined. The pertaining course syllabus can be found in Appendix A: Writing Research
Articles Syllabus.

Course Design and Structure

Writing Research Articles is a credit-bearing elective subject, which takes thirteen weeks to
complete, requiring twelve hours of study per week. It is an interdisciplinary programme,

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whereby a research project undertaken for a co-requisite subject provides the source material
for the programmes final assessment, which is a discipline-specific RA (Appendix A, pp. 4 - 5).
The authenticity of the task, with its genuine and communicative goal of presenting own
research is far more likely to lead to increased fluency and natural acquisition than controlled
exercises (Willis 1996, cited in Guariento & Morley 2001, p. 350). Furthermore, the
programme is designed for online delivery to facilitate student needs. This appears the most
pragmatic delivery mode for the heterogeneous student cohort, whose members participate
in different masters programmes with conflicting course attendance requirements. Weekly
notes, worksheets, handouts and podcasts should be made available on a Moodle, which
should furthermore include a discussion forum to promote peer interaction and reduce
feelings of being isolated (Fedynich, Bradley & Bradley 2015, p.5).

The Writing Research Articles Syllabus is based on a linear course design parallel to the
Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion (IMRD) sequence (Appendix A, p. 7 - 11). It starts
with an advance organiser of the learning objectives, aims and methods, and progresses
chronologically thereafter, including an overview of the generic structure; a discussion of each
stage in the IMRD sequence; a synopsis of additional stages; and, a discussion of aspects of
presentation. The course culminates in the production of a peer-reviewed RA. The lessons are
structured according to a reading-writing paradigm so as to acquire genre knowledge through
reading, and sequentially transform this knowledge into writing. Accordingly, each lesson is
structured as follows: (i) reading tasks; (ii) language awareness, production and/or remedial
exercises; (iii) consolidation through participation in the online forum; and, (iv) continuous
construction, revision and refinement of the final writing assignment.

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Reading Pedagogy
The reading component is based on genre theory to provide students with explicit, systematic
instruction on how academic English functions in the RA genre. Research findings indicate
that explicit training in genre knowledge can lead to long-term retention (Hyon 2001, p. 434)
and has benefits for both L2 reading and writing skills (Hyon 1996, p.713; 2001, p. 434). The
tasks have been scaffolded whereby students first undertake a guided analysis of a model text
based on the ESP approach to genre. A diversity of model texts have been selected, including
two RAs with a strict adherence to the IMRD sequence, and two additional texts, which
demonstrate generic variations (Appendix A, p. 5 - 6). The reading analysis is guided by
worksheet questions modelled on those from Swales and Feak in Academic Writing for
Graduate Students.

Thereafter, students need to study the coursebook Academic Writing: An Introduction, which
includes genre analysis activities based on the New Rhetoric approach. In contrast to the ESP
approach, New Rhetoric emphasises the social embeddedness of genres, in order to
deconstruct the complex relations between text and context and the ways that one reshapes
the other (Hyland 2003, p.22). The purpose of synthesising the two approaches is to foster a
comprehensive understanding of the RA genre as a staged, goal-oriented, social process
(Martin & Rose 2007, cited in Coffin, Donohue & North 2009, p. 249).

The two activities above provide a concrete starting point for the main task, namely the
disciplinary reading portfolio (Appendix A, p. 6), which connects the generic knowledge
studied prior to the specific disciplines. This requires that students investigate three published
discipline-specific RAs per week to discover how the concepts studied prior are realised within

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respective discourse communities. The independent analysis is guided by worksheet

questions and findings need to be recorded in an analysis chart, which provides scaffolding
for the second and third assessment tasks (Appendix A, p. 4 - 5). Hereby students are agents
of their own 'discoursal consciousness raising' via direct, hands-on contact and interaction
with the discourse they must depend upon for success in the disciplinary communities they
operate within (Hirvela 1997, pp. 86 - 87). The objective of the readings tasks is to stimulate
awareness of discipline-specific generic features so that students can use these in texts they
need to write.

Writing Pedagogy
Although the reading activities described above provide valuable information on the RA
genre, it does not assist students in transforming this knowledge into a new text. Therefore,
the programme includes a process writing component, which shifts focus from language
demands to learner needs. Its purpose is to teach the mental processes and cognitive
strategies involved in writing, whereby students work on the final assessment task on a
weekly basis, according to the following model: (i) brainstorming, (ii) mind mapping, (iii)
drafting, (iv) revising, and, (v) proofreading (Appendix A, pp. 7 11). The online discussion
forum plays a crucial role in scaffolding the writing process in that it functions as an
opportunity for peer review, which can improve both learning achievement and student
motivation (Hung & Young 2015, p. 251).

Critical Perspectives
Graduate students at Utrecht University, who by default belong to the Expanding Circle of
English, are in a double-bind. On the one hand, the English language has increasingly

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dominated international scientific discourse, whereby Anglophone speakers enjoy preferred

treatment and status (Kachru 1985, cited in Tardy 2004, p. 248). Consequently, ENL academics
are more likely to be the gatekeepers of published works, who reject submissions that do not
adhere to English academic genre and discourse conventions (Bhatia 1997, Kaplan 2001, cited
in Tardy 2004, pp. 248 - 250). On the other hand, unquestioning obedience to the dictates of
the Anglophone discourse community may be detrimental to student needs, in that
periphery writers experience conflicts in having to indulge in a communicative activity from
which they have to keep out their preferred values, identities, conventions, and knowledge
content (Canagarajah 1999, p. 147). In order to assist students in reconciling these conflicting
factors, the programme includes a critical essay assignment (Appendix A, p. 4 5). This
requires that students interview two members of their respective discourse communities, to
discover whether it is commonly believed that all English language conventions should be
adhered to, or contrarily, a distinctly Dutch flavour can and should be maintained. The
purpose of the critical essay assignment is the discovery of occluded insider knowledge and
development of informed personal opinions on whether Dutch discourse conventions could
or should be included in an English language text.

Learner Needs
In addition to the critical essay assignment and the discussion forum, learner needs have been
accommodated by weekly handouts and worksheets (Appendix A, pp. 7 - 11). The topics have
been determined by language demands, such as citations, hedging and passive constructions,
as well as learner language lacks as evidenced by the results from the preceding needs
analysis of graduate students at Utrecht University. These include syntax of verbal groups;
auxiliaries; nominalisation; discourse markers; temporal adjuncts; and inappropriate

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exophoric references, particularly the use of first and second person personal pronouns. The
worksheets can include language awareness activities; grammar exercises; and, short
production tasks, whereby students re-write popular science magazine features into
academic English.

Conclusion
EFL graduates are at a considerable disadvantage compared to ENL speakers who have
acquired English genre conventions slowly over a period of years, through continuous
exposure to genre-specific texts and an arduous process of writing and rewriting (Loudermilk
2007, p. 191). The programme proposal presented above demonstrates how to fast-track this
process through explicit and systematic guidance in genre discovery combined with a model
that demystifies occluded writing processes. Although genre-based approaches have become
the main institutionalised alternative to process pedagogy (Cheng 2006, p. 76), this
programme proposal demonstrates that genre and process need not be mutually exclusive;
on the contrary, an integrated approach offers a holistic model by connecting language
demands to learner-writer needs. Dutch graduate students have a pressing need to
participate in ESAP writing courses, in that periphery scholars are often excluded from
participation as central members of the international academic community (Duszak 1997,
cited in Tardy 2004, p. 251). Consequently, they often become consumers of central scholars
knowledge rather than active participants in the global discourse community (Canagarajah
1996, cited in Tardy 2004, p. 251). In conclusion, Writing Research Articles demonstrates how
Utrecht University could help graduate students to flourish rather than flounder in global
academia where English is the lingua franca.

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