The document argues that academic literacy skills should not be taught as isolated or "bolted on" courses, but rather should be embedded within individual disciplines as the skills are discipline specific. It asserts that this paradigm shift is needed as teaching skills separately encourages surface learning and does not help students understand why these skills are important. By teaching academic literacy skills within disciplines, students will view the skills as more relevant and it will better prepare them for university-level work.

1. Bolted on or Surgically
Implanted: the Teaching of
Academic Literacy

2. Academic Skills Tutor:
 Deliver workshops (essay writing,
dissertation writing, critical thinking,
etc.)
 Offer one-to-one and group tutorials
 Tailor make sessions at the request of
lecturers
 Write materials for website and
publish learning guides

3. Thesis:
 Academic literacy is not a set of
generic skills that can or should be
taught in isolation. These skills should
be taught within disciplines because
they are discipline specific.
 It follows that libraries or student
writing centres or student study
centres should not be the primary
sites of teaching such skills.

4. The purpose of a university:
 Primary concern should be with the
dissemination of knowledge.
 This knowledge pertains to a discipline
or area of study.
 What should be taught is the
discourse and epistemology of a
discipline.

5. Student support:
 All students need support to succeed
at university, not just students deemed
„at risk‟.
 The leap from whatever came before (
A Levels, a less traditional route) to
university will be great. Few, if
any, students are really prepared.

6. Assumptions of the bolted-on
approach:
 A selected deficit model – some
students lack the necessary skills to
succeed.
 Academic skills are a set of atomised
skills that can be taught in themselves.
 Once taught and learned they can be
transferred to any discipline and
provide the foundation for a student to

7. Faults of the bolted-on approach:
 Separates method from content.
 Encourages surface learning as
opposed to deep learning.
 At its worst, it can appear to offer a set
of tricks or strategies to get a student
through.
 Rarely answers the question „why‟ and
tends to deal with „how‟.

8. Let‟s consider referencing:
 Tends to be taught as an atomised,
mechanical skill which is transferable
to any discipline.
 Focus largely on the „how‟ and not the
„why‟ and not the complexities
inherent in any system of referencing.

9. Referencing better taught within
a discipline:
 Why reference?
 What constitutes a known fact?
 What constitutes a lesser know fact?
 What constitutes an opinion as
opposed to a fact?
 How is an argument made/woven
combining secondary sources and
your own opinion?

10. Let‟s take an essay topic:
 Discuss the following statement by
Twigg (1998, p. 227):
“The boundary between the
medical and the social is a shifting
one, constructed in complex ways
that reflect both institutional and
ideological factors.”

11. Student comment:
 “ The thing I‟m finding most difficult in
my first term here is moving from
subject to subject and knowing how
you‟re meant to write in each one. I‟m
really aware of writing for a particular
tutor as well as for a particular subject.
Everybody seems to want something
different.

12. Paradigm shift:
 Academic literacy is best taught within
disciplines and not as a set of discreet
skills separate from a discipline.
 Embedded within disciplines and
taught to all students such skills would
be better received by students and be
seen as relevant.
 Paradigm shift required on behalf of
administrators, course and
programme leaders.

13. A new dawn:

14. Useful reading:
 Lea, M., and Street, B. (1998) Student Writing in
Higher Education. Studies in Higher Education,
23(2) pp.157-172.
 Northedge, A. (2003) Enabling Participation in
Academic Discourse. Teaching in Higher
Education, 8(2) pp.169-180.
 Wingate, U. (2006) Doing away with „study skills‟.
Teaching in Higher Education, 11(4) pp.457-469.