What’s Valued in College and University Academic Writing?

Since at least the 1980s, a large number of studies have investigated the types of writing and written assignments expected of students in colleges and universities and on standardized tests of L2 writing skills. All these studies report empirical data and findings that directly address a range of academic tasks and skills important in academic writing in colleges and universities in English-speaking countries, such as the U.S. and Canada. Some of these investigations pivot on narrowly focused data, and others are relatively broad in scope (e.g., Hale et al., 1996; Hinkel, 2005, 2011; Horowitz, 1986; ICAS, 2002; Rosenfeld, Leung, & Oltman, 2001). Still additional reports refer to the specific characteristics of student writing that are routinely evaluated on large-scale assessments and tests of writing abilities (e.g., Weigle, 2002). When it comes to the assessment and testing of writing, for instance, the elements of written discourse and text that are typically considered to be desirable or disadvantageous are relatively easy to identify because their scoring rubrics are widely disseminated. In this light, it is clear that the features of writing considered to be important in evaluations of L2 writing quality have to find their way into the curricula for teaching L2 writing.