ABSTRACT
These comments made by lecturers on Paul’s writing (not his real name) give us an insight into the problems faced by students working across different disciplinary traditions. Paul’s main subject is history which he successfully studied at A level. He has received positive feedback on essays written in both history and politics, but his anthropology lecturer perceives his essay writing technique to be a problem. Through analysing what the student had written Lea and Street (1998) conclude that it is knowledge of how to argue and how to support his arguments with evidence in anthropology that is the issue for Paul, not general essay writing technique. Increasing numbers of inter-and multi-disciplinary courses mean that more students are struggling to get to grips with the writing expectations in several different areas.
