ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on three metaphors for academic writing development, and interrogates them in the light of data drawn from a case study of lecturers and students perceptions of how students learn critical, academic writing. The academic socialization model views learning to write in higher education as a prolonged process of acculturation through which students are inducted into the institutional culture of the academy. The chapter examines the findings suggested by Writing in the Disciplines (WID) as a practical vehicle through which mediation strategies can enacted to improve the higher education context for students attainment in writing development. Academic writing assignments remain a primary form of assessing student's attainment in higher education degree programmes. The Disparities in Student Attainment (DiSA) Challenges in Academic Writing project investigates the perceptions of staff and students at one UK university on three core themes: the criteria of good academic writing, how students learn disciplinary writing, and student academic writing practices.
