Peter J MELLALIEU

Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

pmellalieu@unitec.ac.nz

Working Paper 31 July 2008

Abstract

In response to feedback from employers that was critical of business graduates’ writing capability, the article presents the results of a process of continuous innovation that aimed to develop business students' skills in formal writing, especially written persuasive argument. The learning environment created to achieve this task was informed by a selection of the principles and practices of a Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) programme implemented in New Zealand (Emerson, 1999, 2002, 2004).

The techniques were deployed within one specific course - organisational behaviour - in a class where students had little affection for formal writing tasks. Furthermore, the institution had no commitment towards implementing a formal WAC programme, and the teacher/researcher had no formal education in language teaching. Consequently, the study presents results of a 'pathfinder' study aimed at probing the extent to which WAC principles might be of value in achieving the learning outcomes sought by the business school.

An orchestrated sequence of interventions included the adoption of five-paragraph essay writing, Halswell’s Minimal Marking (1983), peer critiques, and McAlpine’s Global English  (1997) as a style guide. A Small Group Instructional Diagnostic (SGID) conducted at the conclusion of the formal teaching sessions identified the reasons why most students valued the interventions as contributing to important developments in their academic literacy.

Carroll (2005) argues that ‘teachers themselves remain the most significant facilitator of students’ adjustments to studying in English’. Accordingly, the investigation presents practical strategies that can be implemented by a motivated teacher in a variety of courses - irrespective of course content - in a manner which minimises risk to both student and teacher, and do not require extensive language teaching skills on the part of the teacher.