Here is a brief summary of some of the individual projects in which PAD members are involved.

Identity and positioning in academic argument

Keith Richards

Keith Richards is currently investigating the relationship between academic identity and argument. In a recent conference paper presented at the University of Bergamo he focused on two distinct but related encounters drawn from the BASE corpus, one involving a panel of academics at a conference and the other based on a student seminar. The paper challenged conventional views of the ways in which arguments are structured, showing that although classical models of argumentation are assumed to inform academic debate, in practice identity construction and strategies of alignment seem to be at least as salient, if not more so. The paper also compared the use of identity as a resource in debate by students and academics, showing how the established academics were able to deploy aspects of their stable academic identity to strategic effect, while the students’ less successful efforts were attributable at least in part to their unstable identity.

Associated reference

Richards, K. 2008. Identity and positioning in academic argument. CELRLIS conference: ‘Trading Identities: Commonality and Individuality in English Academic Discourse’. Bergamo, 19-21 June. [Invited plenary]

Addressing the needs of international students with academic writing difficulties

SUE WHARTON

Sue is participating in a joint project with Ema Ushioda and Claudia Harsch in the above area. Sue's part of the pilot phase (2010-2011) involved the collection and analysis of a small corpus of writing by international students in the department of Statistics. To date, a specific rhetorical task has been selected for focus, and the students' writing has been analysed from the perspective of stance. We are currently exploring the pedagogic implications of this analysis.