ABSTRACT
In chapter 3, examination of the writing tasks in two seminars found not only that the students produced, and were ratified in producing, markedly diverse texts, but also that the activities that surrounded those texts were highly heterogeneous. Viewed only in terms of describing the writing tasks in seminars, such variation is striking. However, academic writing tasks are not isolated events; they are intended to form links in a chain of learning, enculturation, and institutional advance. The link between situated social activity, the development of persons, and social formation has been a central tenet of sociohistoric theory. 1 Thus, a key question is raised by this variation: What are the developmental implications for these kinds of differences in activity, or, in the context of this research, what do these differences suggest about disciplinary enculturation?
