1. 1
Mapping the academic discourse community of the field on academic writing in Colombian higher
education: research spaces and agendas envisioned by scientific articles
Elizabeth Narváez Cardona
Abstract
An emerging academic community might be strengthened if its research programs and scholars' education
in the field are envisioned based on a historical account of its academic discourse community. Higher
education writing in Spanish as a mother tongue is a field of teaching practice and research that emerged
in the late 90’s, mostly led by Argentine, Chilean, Colombian, and Mexican initiatives. An academic
discourse community is not located specifically in physical settings. Rather, this type of discourse creates
and is created by a research community mostly by its publications; especially, the scientific articles that
are used to communicate and define central issues in the fields. Under this theoretical assumption, this
pilot project aims at mapping the academic discourse community of the field on academic writing in
Spanish in Colombian higher education. Accordingly, textual analysis have been conducted through
scientific articles to make inferences about the research spaces configured, the agendas envisioned, and
the stakeholders involved in such agendas. This pilot project might confirm that after 2006, in the
Colombian case, it can be identified a scholarly rupture in the community discourse that turned from the
advocacy of the freshman courses towards the advocacy of teaching writing across the higher education
experiences. Ultimately, this pilot project confirms the incipient development of the field on academic
writing in Colombian higher education in theoretical terms. One of the prominent features of the agendas
envisioned for further research in the field is to conduct studies whose findings should be applied in the
programmatic endeavors addressing mostly institutional practices (i.e., curricula, classroom practices, and
institutional programs). Consequently, research projects aiming at exploring larger international
disciplinary debates (i.e., transfer issues across time and events, developmental studies, academic writing
and other semiotic systems of inscription, cognitive processes in academic and scientific writing, and
ethnographies in work places), might be conducted to boost the development of the Colombian field.
Introduction
An academic discourse community is not located specifically in physical settings. Rather, this
type of discourse creates and is created by a research community mostly by its publications; especially,
the scientific articles that are used to communicate and define central issues in the fields. Under this
theoretical assumption, the textual analyses conducted through scientific articles have confirmed that the
introductions and conclusion/discussion sections are strategic sites in creating research spaces and
agendas respectively, to configure academic communities (Berkenkotter, Huckin, & Ackerman, 1991).
Higher education writing in Spanish as a mother tongue is a field of teaching practice and
research that emerged in the late 90’s, mostly led by Argentine, Chilean, Colombian, and Mexican
initiatives. This field has been boosted by scholars from applied linguistics, literature, didactics,
education, and socio-cultural psychology. A scholar movement called in Spanish “academic literacy” and
influenced by Anglo-Saxon theories has incorporated up to a decade ago the advocacy of teaching writing
in the disciplines (WID). Consequently, the Colombian field on higher education writing in Spanish can
be deemed as an emerging academic community.

2. 2
An emerging academic community might be strengthened if its research programs and scholars'
education in the field are envisioned based on a historical account of its academic discourse community.
Consequently, this pilot project aims at mapping the academic discourse community of the field on
academic writing in Spanish in Colombian higher education. Textual analysis have been conducted
through scientific articles to make inferences about the research spaces configured, the agendas
envisioned, and the stakeholders involved in such agendas.
Methodological approach
The scientific articles analyzed are part of list of publications self-reported by their authors. This
list was collected through a question included in an online survey conducted in Argentina, Chile,
Colombia, and Mexico by a snowball technique in summer 20121.
The list of publications includes different academic genres as chapters of books or handbooks,
articles systematizing experiences, and research articles. The methodological decision related to analyzing
exclusively scientific articles relies on the importance of selecting documents that had been undergone
peer review. Given that the peer review is a practice for regulating the academic discourse community,
contents that have been published through research articles can count as part of the official discourse of
such community.
The scientific articles selected were written by different authors. The purposeful sample
(Merriam, 2009), comprised the articles from the most ancient (2007) until the most recent (2013) and
titled overtly with topics related to higher education writing. The table 1 displays the sample.
Table 1
The purposeful sample
# Year Title
1 2007 Concepciones de profesores y estudiantes sobre la escritura académica en la Universidad
Icesi.
2 2009 ¿Cómo argumentan por escrito los fonoaudiólogos en formación?
3 2010 Prácticas de lectura y escritura en la Universidad Sergio Arboleda. Un estudio de casos.
4 2011 Enseñar a escribir en la universidad: saberes y prácticas de docentes y estudiantes
universitarios.
5 2011 Cambios en la lectura y la escritura de universitarios con el curso "Comunicación Oral y
Escrita”
1
This information has been collected in the project “Initiatives on Reading and Writing in Higher Education, ILEES
Latin America” led by Dr. Charles Bazerman of the Department of Education and funded by University of
California, Santa Bárbara (2011-2012), and The Conference on College Composition and Communication
(CCCC) (2012-2013). In this project Natalia Ávila and Mónica Tapia from Chile, and Vera Lúcia Cristovão from
Brazil have also participated.

3. 3
6 2012 “Cómo mejorar la capacidad inferencial en estudiantes universitarios”
7 2013 Tensiones entre discursos de estudiantes y profesores universitarios sobre la lectura y la
escritura
Given that the analytical goal has been to infer the research spaces configured, the agendas
envisioned, and the stakeholders involved in such agendas, textual analysis has been conducted to identify
who might be persuaded by the introduction and conclusion/discussion sections, and what for (Selzer,
2004). Accordingly, the abstracts, introduction, and conclusion/discussion sections of the papers selected
have been read several times in order to:
1) Underline the linguistic features (adverbs, adjectives, linking words, and modalization’s devices) to
make inferences about two types of interactive potential meaning (Stillar, 1998): a) positional: The
constructed speaking/writing subject and the expression of attitudes, intentions, and evaluations
(underlined in yellow), and, b) relational: Linguistic resources that construct relations between
speakers/writers and listeners/readers (underlined in blue). Example2:
Párrafo 1
Claramente se evidencian divergencias en las concepciones de estudiantes y profesores alrededor de la
lectura y la escritura. Mientras que los estudiantes analizan el problema tocando aspectos que involucran
crítica a sus docentes y reflexión sobre sus propias prácticas, en los profesores la crítica a las prácticas de
los estudiantes está mucho más presente, y la reflexión sobre sus propias responsabilidades es mucho
menor. Sin embargo, ambos concuerdan en la preocupación por una problemática multidimensional.
2) Identify types of intertextual relationships created by the documents to infer its function in posing
arguments to persuade and shaping audiences. Two types of intertextual phenomena have been taken in
consideration, namely, explicit and implicit intertextuality (Table 2) (Bazerman, 2004; 2010):
a) Explicit intertextuality involves the extratextual voices depicted by direct quotations or indirect
quotations citing authors or names of books or authors, or using italic fonts to make reference to
theoretical models. Additionally, explicit intertextuality also is developed as intratextual resource making
reference to information already stated in the text or to add information in footnotes; especially in the
conclusion section in which the findings already presented are cited as part of the claims.
2
Given that the raw data has been collected in Spanish, the examples of the analytical procedures and some of the
illustrations presented as evidence in the findings section have been kept in Spanish. Moreover, these findings have
not been translated, because this procedure had not revealed necessarily what has been analyzed from the Spanish
version.

4. 4
b) The second type, implicit intertextuality, involves extratextual voices embedded in the text
under the following sentences: "studies have shown"…"it is asserted that"…or "it has been accepted
that”, but without names of authors, books or other formats of overt citation.
Table 2
Types of intertextuality
Explicit intertextuality Implicit intertextuality
The extratextual voices intratextual resources Extratextual voices embedded in
direct indirect indirect indirect making reference to the text under the following
quotations quotation quotations citing quotations information already stated sentences: "studies have
s citing names of books using italic in the text or to add shown"…"it is asserted that"…or
authors or authors fonts to make information in footnotes "it has been accepted that..."
reference to
theoretical
models
“en los Cazden … basándose en Las prácticas Esto se hizo visible en la Con frecuencia, se afirma que los
grupos e (1991) la propuesta de de escritura pregunta 7 de la encuesta de estudiantes llegan…
instituciones establece Jesús Ibáñez… más comunes los estudiantes (uso que dan
dominantes y que el en Icesi los estudiantes,
en la forma discurso1 responden al posteriormente, a los
en la que en clase modelo de comentarios que el profesor
estos crean y tiene las socializacion les consigna cuando evalúa
mantienen la siguientes academica, sus trabajos escritos), cuyo
desigualdad caracterís cuyas objetivo era…
social por ticas (…) exigencias se
medio de la centran en el
comunicació desarrollo del
n y el uso de contenido,
la lengua” esto es del
(Van Dijk, texto
2004, p. 8). académico.
3) Additionally, an analytic rubric created in Excel has been used to organize the analysis and
describe the inferences. This rubric included two sections. The first section in which general information
about the article and the journal was identified, as follows:
Article Tensiones entre discursos de Journal’s name: Signo
y Topics of the journal: La revista maneja Year:
title estudiantes y profesores Pensamiento temáticas que incluyen: Las tendencias 2013
universitarios sobre la lectura y teóricas y metodológicas referidas al campo
la escritura de la comunicación y sus relaciones
multidisciplinarias.
Section Conclusion section Discipline or academic unit in Es producida semestralmente por la Facultad
charge of the journal de Comunicación y Lenguaje
The second section, illustrated below, attempted to organize the introduction sections by
paragraphs in order to identify types of intertextuality and make inferences about who is attempted to be
persuaded and what for (Selzer, 2004). As minimal units of segmentation, the paragraphs have been used

5. 5
due to the assumption that such units of sense were originally shaped by the authors to create a flow of
meanings in the text. An additional column was added to include comments emerging during the analysis.
# Paragraph Intertextuality Rhetorical analysis Comment
paragrap s/Questio
Who is What for?
h ns of the
Explicit Implicit attempted to be
analyst
persuaded? Make Reconsider
actions beliefs
1 Claramente se evidencian Internal in the Researchers in The
divergencias en las concepciones same text/ the data the field students are
de estudiantes y profesores that has been able to
alrededor de la lectura y la presented as reflect on
escritura. Mientras que los evidence in the their own
estudiantes analizan el problema finding section practices
tocando aspectos que involucran while the
crítica a sus docentes y reflexión professors
sobre sus propias prácticas, en are not
los profesores la crítica a las
prácticas de los estudiantes está
mucho más presente, y la
reflexión sobre sus propias
responsabilidades es mucho
menor. Sin embargo, ambos
concuerdan en la preocupación
por una problemática
multidimensional.
4) Finally, in order to make inferences about the agendas and stakeholders based on grounding
analysis (Corbin & Strauss, 1990), the conclusion/discussion sections have been read by paragraphs using
the rubric displayed below. The same color code described in the step 1 to underline the linguistic features
has been used. This grounding analysis was significant, because the linguistic features defined a priori
(e.g., modalization devices as could, must, should, or, ought) were not enough for making inferences. In
reading the paragraphs, other rhetoric strategies to configure agendas emerged; for instance, the indirect
questions (an illustration of this strategy is double underlined in the following table):
P#4 Stakeholders Agenda Problem Claim Features of
the initiative
Ante estas contradicciones Researchers in the Studies regarding
surgen varias preguntas en field - What the faculty
torno a ¿Qué escriben los members write and
docentes? ¿Escriben para sus publish?
disciplinas académicas? ¿Cuál - the status of the
es el valor de la escritura en la writing in their
construcción del conocimiento disciplines
en cada una de las áreas? Paula - What hinders faculty
Carlino (2005) afirma que es writing and
necesario reestructurar las publication?
clases y lograr que en estas se
ofrezcan “propuestas de trabajo

6. 6
que guíen a los alumnos en las
actividades de obtención y
elaboración de conocimiento
que nos han formado a nosotros
[los maestros] mismos” (p. 13).
Entonces, ¿cómo pedir a los
estudiantes que escriban si los
maestros no son sus referentes
en este ejercicio académico? y
¿qué limita a los maestros para
convertirse en los referentes
que sus estudiantes necesitan?
Faculty members They should teach The faculty Intertextuality
students how they members are not
learned writing in their disciplinary
disciplines writers
necessarily
Findings
This section is organized in three sections. The first part describes a brief state of art to locate
historically the scientific articles analyzed. The next section deploys the tendencies identified upon the
research spaces inferred from the articles analyzed. Finally, the agendas envisioned and the stakeholders
are described.
Brief state of art to locate historically the scientific articles analyzed
First language writing in higher education is an emerging field of social sciences in Spanish-
speaking countries. The scholarship led by the chairs of UNESCO for reading and writing in Latin-
America (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico), has advocated since 90´s educating writers for
citizenship (Ortiz-Casallas, 2011).
Different tendencies have emerged from the research and teaching initiatives. One movement has
argued, until 2006 approximately, that incoming university students bring shortcomings as writers; thus,
writing has been taught in freshman courses (Murillo, 2010). Furthermore, a recent movement, mostly
influenced by the leadership of an argentine scholar, has advocated in the last 6 years that writing is a
disciplinary practice learned exclusively in higher education (Carlino, 2001; 2006; 2008). Consequently,
it is expected that universities provide diverse, intensive, and sustained specialized settings to encourage
writing developments of undergraduate and graduate students (Murillo, 2010).
Regarding public policies, the government has mandated since 2010 a compulsorily
undergraduate assessment in the last year of the programs. The assessment on writing abilities in Spanish
is one of the components of this public policy.
This context could explain, in part, the features of the purposeful sample analyzed; particularly,
the topics deployed by the titles. Titles of the texts # 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 indicate that such articles are

7. 7
focused on analyzing assumptions and/or practices of professors and students across disciplinary courses
and professional education; whereas texts # 5 and 6 are related to freshman courses and programs to
improve the shortcomings of the students as readers and writers. This behavior of the data might confirm
that after 2006, in the Colombian case, it can be identified a scholarly rupture in the community discourse
that turned from the advocacy of the freshman courses towards the advocacy of teaching writing across
the higher education experiences.
Figure 1
The benchmarks in the Colombian field on higher education writing in mother tongue
The government mandated the large scale
assessment (writing abilities in Spanish)
Pruebas del Saber PRO
2010
1999 2006 2006 2013
 UNESCO for reading and writing  Argentine influence (Paula
movements in Latin-America for Carlino/Phycology )
educating writers for citizenship and  Scholar movements advocating
self-learning “academic literacy” to educating
 Scholar movements advocating faculty members and graduate students
freshman courses to remediate student as disciplinary writers
shortcomings  Theoretical frameworks: sociocultural
 Theoretical frameworks: textual psychology, new literacy studies
linguistics, discourse analysis, genre (literature in Spanish), and WAC and
studies, psycholinguistic, and didactic WID movements (literature in English)
of mother tongue (Spanish).
# Year Title
1 2007 Concepciones de profesores y estudiantes sobre
la escritura académica en la Universidad Icesi.
2 2009 ¿Cómo argumentan por escrito los
fonoaudiólogos en formación?
3 2010 Prácticas de lectura y escritura en la Universidad
Sergio Arboleda. Un estudio de casos.
4 2011 Enseñar a escribir en la universidad: saberes y
prácticas de docentes y estudiantes
universitarios.
5 2011 Cambios en la lectura y la escritura de
universitarios con el curso "Comunicación Oral y
Escrita”
6 2012 “Cómo mejorar la capacidad inferencial en
estudiantes universitarios”
7 2013 Tensiones entre discursos de estudiantes y
profesores universitarios sobre la lectura y la
escritura

8. 8
The table 3 displays the disciplinary affiliation of the authors, the city in which their universities
are located, the name of the journals and the academic units in charge of the journals that published the
articles analyzed. The tendencies emerging might suggest that most of the articles were written by
scholars whose institutional affiliations are in the capital of the country. However, this claim should be
confirmed with additional collection data given that the list of the articles analyzed were originally
comprised by a purposeful sample. Furthermore, regarding their disciplinary affiliations, the overall
tendency is that the authors have achieved graduate studies on Linguistics.
According to the information upon the disciplines or academic units in charge of the journals in
which these research articles have been published, it might suggest that the dissemination of the research
initiatives and their agendas seems to be highly dispersed. These disciplines or academic units have
ranged from health science to humanities, social sciences, communication, and education.
Table 3
Disciplinary and institutional affiliations of the authors and journals
Disciplinary Disciplines or
affiliation of the City of the Journals’ name academic unit in
# Year Title institutional
authors deployed in charge of the
the articles affiliation of the journal
authors
1 2007 Concepciones de Studies in teaching Santiago de Cali Lenguaje Philology and
profesores y estudiantes foreign languages Linguistics
sobre la escritura and graduate studies
académica en la in Linguistics
Universidad Icesi.
2 2009 ¿Cómo argumentan por Speech therapist Popayán Areté Health sciences
escrito los with graduate
fonoaudiólogos en studies in
formación? Linguistics
3 2010 Prácticas de lectura y Philologist Bogotá, D.C. Civilizar Human and
escritura en la social sciences
Universidad Sergio
Arboleda. Un estudio
de casos.
4 2011 Enseñar a escribir en la Researcher on Bogotá, D.C. Magis Education
universidad: saberes y cognition and
prácticas de docentes y language and
estudiantes practitioner on
universitarios. teacher development
Speech therapist
with graduate
studies in
Linguistics
5 2011 Cambios en la lectura y Speech therapists Bogotá, D.C. Revista Facultad Health sciences
la escritura de and physiologists de Medicina
universitarios con el with graduate

9. 9
curso "Comunicación studies in
Oral y Escrita” Linguistics,
Education and
Public health
6 2012 “Cómo mejorar la Studies in teaching Bogotá, D.C Revista Education
capacidad inferencial Spanish and educación y
en estudiantes literature and educadores
universitarios” graduate studies in
Linguistics and
Education
7 2013 Tensiones entre Chair of the writing Santiago de Cali Signo y Communication
discursos de estudiantes center in her pensamiento and language
y profesores university and
universitarios sobre la researcher on
lectura y la escritura language and
communication
Research spaces
The research spaces have been understood in this paper as what has been investigated by the
authors of the articles analyzed and the reasons justifying this research goal. Therefore, these types of
research spaces have been inferred mostly in the abstracts and introduction sections. The table 4 displays
the summary of the distribution of the four research spaces identified across the articles analyzed, namely:
1) The actual changes in student writing in the freshman composition courses should be
assessed.
2) The growth of students as writers and readers across their higher education experiences
should be investigated.
3) The assumptions of university teachers and students about writing affect teaching and
learning, especially writing assignments.
4) The actual teaching practices in disciplinary courses must be investigated in order to improve
them.

10. 10
Table 4
Summary of the distribution of the four research spaces across the articles analyzed
Research spaces
3) The
2) The 4) The
assumptions
1) The growth of actual
of university
actual students as teaching
teachers’ and
Disciplinary changes in writers and practices in
Disciplines or students
affiliation of student readers disciplinary
academic unit about writing
# Year Title the authors writing in across their courses
in charge of affects
deployed in freshman higher must be
the journal teaching and
the articles composition education investigated
learning
courses experiences in order to
practices,
should be should be improve
especially
assessed investigated them
writing
assignments
1 2007 Concepciones Studies in Philology and
de profesores y teaching Linguistics
estudiantes foreign
sobre la languages and
escritura graduate
académica en studies in
la Universidad Linguistics
Icesi.
2 2009 ¿Cómo Speech Health sciences
argumentan therapist with
por escrito los graduate
fonoaudiólogos studies in
en formación? Linguistics
3 2010 Prácticas de Philologist Human and
lectura y social sciences
escritura en la
Universidad
Sergio
Arboleda. Un
estudio de
casos.
4 2011 Enseñar a Researcher on Education
escribir en la cognition and
universidad: language and
saberes y practitioner on
prácticas de teacher
docentes y development
estudiantes
universitarios. Speech
therapist with
graduate
studies in
Linguistics
5 2011 Cambios en la Speech Health sciences
lectura y la therapists and
escritura de physiologists
universitarios with graduate
con el curso studies in
"Comunicación Linguistics,
Oral y Escrita” Education and
Public health

11. 11
6 2012 “Cómo mejorar Studies in Education
la capacidad teaching
inferencial en Spanish and
estudiantes literature and
universitarios” graduate
studies in
Linguistics and
Education
7 2013 Tensiones Chair of the Communication
entre discursos writing center and language
de estudiantes in her
y profesores university and
universitarios researcher on
sobre la lectura language and
y la escritura communication
with graduate
studies on
Linguistics
The prior analysis might reveal that research spaces regarding the growth of students as writers
have been proposed by researchers in health sciences and education whereas research spaces on the
assumptions of university teachers’ about writing assignments have been mostly configured by scholars
in education and linguistics.
To identify the research spaces, the inferences arranged in the rubric deployed below have been
re-read across the seven texts to find similarities and differences (Eisenhardt, 1989) regarding who is
attempted to be persuaded and what for (Selzer, 2004).
# Paragraph Intertextuality Rhetorical analysis Comment
paragrap s/Questio
Who is What for?
h ns of the
Explicit Implicit attempted to be
analyst
persuaded? Make Reconsider
actions beliefs
1 Claramente se evidencian Internal in the Researchers in The
divergencias en las concepciones same text/ the data the field students are
de estudiantes y profesores that has been able to
alrededor de la lectura y la presented as reflect on
escritura. Mientras que los evidence in the their own
estudiantes analizan el problema finding section practices
tocando aspectos que involucran while the
crítica a sus docentes y reflexión professors
sobre sus propias prácticas, en are not
los profesores la crítica a las
prácticas de los estudiantes está
mucho más presente, y la
reflexión sobre sus propias
responsabilidades es mucho
menor. Sin embargo, ambos
concuerdan en la preocupación
por una problemática
multidimensional.

12. 12
These several analytical comparisons (Eisenhardt, 1989) enabled me to arrange an argumentative
structure for each research space comprised by the main claim and its arguments. The table 5 deploys a
graphic summarizing this argumentative arrangement and some of the excerpts of the texts analyzed. At
the end of such fragments, a code will be displayed between parenthesis as follows: (T6, IS, P3); which
means that the fragment can be found in the text #6, in the introduction section and in the paragraph 3.
For the remaining sections, namely, discussion and conclusion sections, the following codes will be used
DS and CS.
Table 5
Argumentative arrangement of the research spaces
Main claim Excerpts First level of argument Excerpts
1.1. Freshman (…)3 Un número
composition courses are considerable de estudiantes
necessary in higher que acceden a la educación
education because superior no dominan
students bring competencias como las que
shortcomings as writers se enuncian en los
according to the public Estándares de
large scale assessment Competencias en Lenguaje
Las preguntas de este for secondary levels. (T5, IS, P1)
1. The actual changes estudio fueron: ¿Existen
in student writing in cambios en la lectura y la 1.2. The impacts of the Desarrollados a partir de la
freshman escritura de los estudiantes freshman courses are not perspectiva de la escritura
composition courses que tomaron el curso clear due to they are como proceso, se
should be assessed "Comunicación oral y associated to different encontraron que en el éxito
escrita"? (T5, IS, P10). factors such as personal académico de los
academic histories as estudiantes de pregrado
well as the effects of the depende de un trabajo
systematic instruction of sistemático en lectura y
metacognitive strategies escritura, y de dos
conjuntos de factores en él:
factores individuales y
factores del entorno (…)
(T5, IS, P5)
3
These symbols: (…), indicates that the analyst has eliminated fragments of the original paragraphs.

13. 13
Main claim Excerpts First level of argument Second level of Excerpts
arguments
En una indagación 2.1. This growth should 2.1.1. Otherwise Dada la relación
posterior de tipo ensue in higher students’ academic señalada entre
comparativo se aplicó education regardless the achievements could aprendizaje y
por segunda vez la disciplines be hindered as well as escritura, puede
prueba de the access to further inferirse que las
comprensión de graduate studies and dificultades que tenga
lectura a professional un estudiante en la
aproximadamente el development producción textual,
40% de los podría incidir
estudiantes de últimos negativamente en su
semestres de las rendimiento
2. The growth of carreras universitarias académico. Aún si
students as (…) aunque se logra culminar con
writers and esperaba que el éxito sus estudios de
readers across porcentaje de pregrado, las
their higher inferencias fuera limitaciones en la
education mayor que la primera escritura podrían
experiences vez, (…) los afectar su acceso a
should be resultados estudios de postgrado
investigated demostraron que los y su mismo
estudiantes no desempeño
mejoraron su profesional. (T2, IS,
capacidad inferencial, P3).
sino que continuaron
utilizando la
paráfrasis y la copia
literal en la mayoría
de respuestas
(Cisneros, Olave y
Rojas, 2010). (T6, IS,
P3).
Main claim Excerpts First level of argument Excerpts
Es imperativo que en la 3.1. Reading scientific Los textos de divulgación
investigación sobre las documents and argumentative científica, expositivos y
concepciones que and expository texts are the argumentativos, no deben
profesores y estudiantes core of education across the ser considerados sólo de
universitarios tienen sobre levels manera ocasional sino que
la escritura y de cómo éstas se deben convertir en el
se reflejan en la práctica énfasis de la práctica
docente y en las pedagógica en los distintos
3. The assumptions of composiciones escritas de niveles educativos
university teachers’ los educandos, se detecten y (Cisneros, 2005). (T6, IS,
and students about se analicen las diferentes P2)
writing affects actividades que se 3.2. Higher education learning La construcción de
teaching and learning desarrollan alrededor de la mostly evolves through conocimiento en la
practices, especially enseñanza y de su reading and writing practices educación superior está
writing assignments aprendizaje. (T1, IS, P1). mediada por procesos de
lectura y
escritura que son
intrínsecos a todas las
disciplinas. Dichos
procesos no solo
transcurren en el aula de
clases, sino que se dan, más
o menos regulados, en otros
escenarios y con distintas

14. 14
motivaciones.
Generalmente,
corresponden a tareas
asignadas por los
profesores, mediadas por
algún proceso evaluativo,
que, a su vez, se constituye
en la principal motivación
para el cumplimiento de los
estudiantes (T7, IS, P2).
3.3. Learning about Se sostiene la necesidad de
assumptions about writing tener en cuenta estas
is important to make concepciones en cualquier
programmatic decisions tipo de intervención sobre
either for institutional or lectura y escritura que se
national latitudes plantee en las
universidades, ya sea en el
aula o en el ámbito de
políticas institucionales o
estatales (T7, AS).
Main claim Excerpts First level of argument Excerpts
En razón de lo anterior, la 4.1. Disciplinary professors Con frecuencia, se afirma
investigación que se are responsible of the que los estudiantes llegan al
presenta en este artículo shortcomings in students’ nivel universitario sin las
tuvo como propósito writing competencias de escritura
caracterizar las prácticas de necesarias para desarrollar
lectura y escritura en sus procesos de formación
algunos cursos de la en este ámbito (T4, IS, P1)
Universidad Sergio (…) David Russell (1990)
4. The actual teaching Arboleda y proponer afirma que la mayoría de
practices in algunas bases para su los docentes universitarios
disciplinary courses cualificación (T3, IS, P2). asumen estas dificultades
must be investigated como ajenas a su
in order to improve responsabilidad de
them formación (…) Esta
perspectiva implica, para
las instituciones de
educación superior, asumir
la responsabilidad de
ocuparse de los problemas
de escritura de sus
estudiantes (…) (T4, IS,
P2)
The overall finding related to identifying the prior research spaces might be that most of the
articles analyzed have disseminated research projects in which the aim has been beyond to explore
shortcomings in the students writing. These research spaces have focused on a) the growth of the students
as writers across their university experiences, including in freshman courses, b) the assumptions on
writing of the university teachers and students, and c) the actual teaching practices in disciplines. The
latter might confirm the influence since 2006 of the scholar movements and theoretical frameworks
related to sociocultural psychology, new literacy studies, and WAC and WID movements. Such academic

15. 15
community discourse might be mostly advocated by scholars whose their institutional affiliations are
from the capital of the country. Nevertheless, since this pilot project has collected a purposeful sample,
additional data must be collected to confirm this hypothesis.
Agendas envisioned and the stakeholders
Given the provisional scope of this project, the tendencies regarding agendas and stakeholders
have been explored in the conclusion sections of the texts # 1-5. The table 6 summarizes such tendencies.
The articles seem to configure faculty members, researchers in the field, university directives, and
students as stakeholders of the agendas. Relying on the Table 6, the university teachers and the
researchers in the field seem to be the most frequent stakeholders configured by the articles analyzed in
contrast to faculty members and students. Given that research articles are the key genres to create
academic discourse communities, it is not surprising that researchers in the field had been configured as
stakeholders. However, it is striking the tendency identified regarding the agendas aiming at making
institutional policies. For that reason, this specific agenda has been analyzed in depth.

16. 16
Table 6
Stakeholders and agendas envisioned by the articles analyzed
Stakeholders
Faculty members Researchers in the field University directives Students
Agendas Agendas Agendas Agendas
Program 1 Program 2 Program 1 Program 2 Program Program 4 Program 1 Program 2 Program 3 Program 4 Program 1
3
Team Teaching Projects on Projects on Projects Rethinking Rethinking Curriculum Institutiona Faculty Developing
teaching students actual the status on who is in the reforms l policies developmen argumentativ
# Year communities on writing teaching of writing stability charge of institutional including advocating t based on e abilities
advocating as they practices of in their of the projects WAC and WAC and WAC and
WAC and learned it disciplinar disciplines learning academic WID WID WID
WID in their y teachers and on achieved literacies paradigms paradigms paradigms
paradigms disciplines what in
hinders freshman
publicatio courses
n practices
of faculty
members
1 2007
2 2009
3 2010
4 2011
5 2011
Frequencies by 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 3 1
agendas
Frequencies by 3 5 7 1
stakeholders

17. 17
The most frequent program identified under the agendas involving university directives seems to
be faculty development based on WAC/WID paradigms (program # 4 in Table 6). The claims deployed
by the articles related to this program have advocated for teaching practices in disciplinary courses in
order to enlarge the pedagogical use of writing beyond of being an assessment tool. Two main arguments
are used to justify this program: a) the limited scope of the freshman composition courses in educating
professional and disciplinary writers across curriculum, and b) the use of writing in disciplinary courses
mostly as an assessment tool. In doing so, the articles analyzed have argued that the composition scholars
might be consultants in faculty development. The summary of the arguments across the articles analyzed
of the program for faculty development is deployed in table 7.
Table 7
Arguments for the program # 4: Faculty development based on WAC/WID paradigms
Claims Tex Fragments from the articles analyzed
ts #
Given that writing 1, Ni en las expectativas de los profesores y de los estudiantes para realizar un trabajo
assignments are used mostly 3,4 escrito, ni en los comentarios que los profesores consignan en los trabajos de los
as assessment means, writing estudiantes se percibe que se esté trabajando con miras a formar comunidad científica,
is not used in disciplinary entendida como una colectividad en la que se utilizan normas de comunicación
courses to educate especializadas para transmitir y evaluar ideas (T1, CS, P3)
professional and disciplinary El estudio demuestra que el uso que se hace de la escritura se dirige a la expresión del
writers. conocimiento y a la verificación del aprendizaje de contenidos. Se fomenta la escritura
al exigir y evaluar textos escritos mas no enseñando a escribirlos. Se cae entonces en lo
que Paula Carlino (2005, p. 108) presenta como los “supuestos sobre la lectura y la
escritura”, que hacen pensar al docente que escribir es “una técnica básica, la cual, una
vez adquirida, sirve para poner sobre el papel cualquier conocimiento” (T4, DS, P10).
Freshman composition 1 El esfuerzo que la Universidad Icesi ha hecho al brindar a sus estudiantes los cursos de
courses have achieved their Comunicación Oral y Escrita en los dos primeros semestres, parece que se estuviera
goals, but there is no perdiendo, puesto que los conocimientos allí impartidos no se refuerzan ni se exigen,
sustainable endeavors in the como sería deseable, en las materias diferentes a éstas (T1, CS, P14).
disciplinary curriculum
Freshman composition 3 (…) Y, en este sentido, uno de los factores decisivos para el afianzamiento de las
courses cannot be the single capacidades comunicativas es la intervención pedagógica continuada y consistente. La
pedagogical intervention in caracterización de los casos estudiados permite vislumbrar que la formación de los
higher education docentes disciplinares podría resultar mucho más efectiva para el alcance de las metas
generales que se propone la Alfabetización Académica, que la sola programación de
cursos iniciales de lectura y escritura (…) (T3, DS, P1)
Given that what is learned in 3,4 Los resultados del estudio han puesto en evidencia que tenemos una concepción
freshman composition courses equívoca sobre la existencia de estrategias de lectura y escritura únicas y válidas,
is not necessarily transferred aplicables o transferibles a cualquier disciplina o campo del conocimiento. La
to other academic domains transferencia de los conocimientos en torno a leer y escribir que se logran en una
and because of the lack of materia dedicada a este propósito no está garantizada. Es posible que las formas en que
awareness of how to use lo realizan los abogados o los matemáticos no entren en total correspondencia con lo
writing in disciplinary que los especialistas en lenguaje saben sobre estos procesos; así como es posible que
courses, the composition los conocimientos de los docentes de esos campos sobre cómo potenciar la lectura y
scholars should be consultants escritura requieran la asesoría de especialistas en el tema de la alfabetización (T3, DS,
in disciplinary departments. P2)
El alto porcentaje de docentes que manifiesta gusto por la escritura y que,
efectivamente escribe (94%), parecía ser un punto de partida importante en el momento
de enseñar a escribir a los estudiantes universitarios en cada uno de los espacios
académicos. Se pensó que un docente a quien le gusta escribir se constituiría en
promotor de ese proceso. No obstante lo anterior, el estudio pone en evidencia que este
gusto está ligado a formas de escribir poco relacionadas con el discurso de las

18. 18
disciplinas y la producción de conocimiento en estas. Los hallazgos revelan que los
docentes no escriben para sus disciplinas y no ponen a disposición del estudiante textos
de referencia que le permitan acercarse a este ejercicio académico como parte integral
no desligable de toda su formación como profesional. Solo en tres casos es posible
constatar que la escritura es usada por los docentes en los procesos de construcción de
conocimiento en sus disciplinas (T4, DS, P3)
Finally, given that research articles are genres defining central issues in the fields, it has been
important highlighting the research agendas and the arguments envisioned by the articles analyzed.
Ultimately, these articles advocate conducting further studies on actual teaching practices in disciplinary
courses and on the status of academic writing and publishing practices of faculty members in different
disciplines. In one case, further longitudinal studies are suggested to explore the impact of freshman
courses over time (Table 8).
Table 8
Arguments for the research agendas
Claims Texts Fragments from the articles analyzed
#
Further studies might 1,3 Subsisten, de cualquier forma, muchos interrogantes que vale la pena tomar en
contrast data emerging consideración y que contribuirían de manera significativa a caracterizar nuestras
from the assumptions of formas de asumir la lectura y la escritura: ¿qué hacen tanto profesores como
faculty members and estudiantes con lo que se lee y se escribe?, ¿son la lectura y la escritura solo
students against data from dispositivos activos para la evaluación?, ¿cómo se planea lo que se asigna como tarea
actual teaching and en lectura y escritura?, ¿cuáles son los intereses formativos del docente?, ¿se le aclara
learning practices actually al estudiante cuál es la mejor forma de comprender, asociar e incorporar los códigos
undergone in classrooms. del discurso de sus disciplinas y profesiones? (T3, DS, P4)
Further studies might 4 Ante estas contradicciones surgen varias preguntas en torno a ¿Qué escriben los
explore the status of docentes? ¿Escriben para sus disciplinas académicas? ¿Cuál es el valor de la escritura
academic writing and en la construcción del conocimiento en cada una de las áreas? Paula Carlino (2005)
publishing in the afirma que es necesario reestructurar las clases y lograr que en estas se ofrezcan
disciplines under the “propuestas de trabajo que guíen a los alumnos en las actividades de obtención y
assumption that if faculty elaboración de conocimiento que nos han formado a nosotros [los maestros] mismos”
members are academic (p. 13). Entonces, ¿cómo pedir a los estudiantes que escriban si los maestros no son
writers, they should teach sus referentes en este ejercicio académico? y ¿qué limita a los maestros para
how to write to their convertirse en los referentes que sus estudiantes necesitan? (T4, DS, P4)
students
Further longitudinal 5 Cabe anotar que los hallazgos presentados en este estudio no son generalizables dado
studies might provide su pequeño grupo de participantes (3,6, 14,15). Este estudio también adolece falta de
insight on the stability of alusiones a la estabilidad de los aprendizajes más allá del momento actual.
the writing knowledge Investigaciones que han realizado estos seguimientos muestran que varias habilidades
acquired in freshman matemáticas y verbales permanecen estables a lo largo de varios períodos (24), pero
composition courses por no ser la lectura y la escritura académicas un requerimiento de toda la escolaridad
básica, se hace necesario ver la estabilidad de su aprendizaje con el paso del tiempo
(11).(T5, DS, P5)

19. 19
The overall finding related to the agendas envisioned and the stakeholders involved in such
programs might suggest that, at least from the articles analyzed, the field on academic writing in
Colombian higher education has configured programmatic efforts involving mostly university directives
and faculty members relying on WAC/WID paradigms. Except from one case identified in the text # 5,
the article stated the importance of conducting longitudinal studies in understanding the stability of
writing knowledge across university learning experiences. Consequently, agendas entailing research
programs are mostly configured to gain further insights for being applied in the programmatic endeavors
addressing university directives and faculty members. Ultimately, the research programs could be highly
shaped by such educational applied agendas.
These tendencies might confirm the childhood of the Colombian field in which most of the
research efforts are concentrated in impacting institutional practices (i.e., curricula, classroom practices,
and institutional programs), rather than the core of the larger disciplinary debates (i.e., transfer issues
across time and events, developmental studies on genre knowledge, agency/authorship/ownership, or
identities, relationships between academic writing and other semiotic systems of inscription, myriad
cognitive processes involved in academic and scientific writing, and ethnographies conducted in work
places or learning setting other than university classrooms).
Conclusions
This pilot project might confirm that after 2006, in the Colombian case, it can be identified a
scholarly rupture in the community discourse that turned from the advocacy of the freshman courses
towards the advocacy of teaching writing across the higher education experiences. The latter might also
confirm the influence since 2006 of the scholar movements and theoretical frameworks related to
sociocultural psychology, new literacy studies, and WAC and WID movements.
The academic community discourse inferred by this project seems to be mostly comprised by
scholars whose their institutional affiliations are from the capital of the country. However, since this pilot
project has used a purposeful sample, additional data must be collected to confirm this hypothesis. If such
hypothesis is further confirmed, future projects should be conducted to explore scholarly discourses in
less leading cities in the country.
Furthermore, regarding the disciplinary affiliations of the authors, the overall tendency is that
these scholars have achieved graduate studies on Linguistics. This might suggests that masters and
doctorate programs in Linguistics could be fruitful sites in Colombian higher education to encourage
incoming students to researching on higher education writing.
The prior analysis might reveal that research spaces regarding the growth of students as writers
have been proposed by scholars with backgrounds in health sciences and education. Theoretically

20. 20
speaking, given that developmental studies is one of the central issues for the international discourse
community in the field, interdisciplinary research projects conducted by scholars in Linguistics, education
and health sciences for incorporating complementary frameworks could boost the progress of the
Colombian field.
Ultimately, this pilot project confirms the incipient development of the field on academic writing
in Colombian higher education in theoretical terms. One of the prominent features of the agendas for
further research in the field is to conduct studies whose findings should be applied in the programmatic
endeavors addressing mostly institutional practices (i.e., curricula, classroom practices, and institutional
programs). Consequently, research projects aiming at exploring larger international disciplinary debates
(i.e., transfer issues across time and events, developmental studies, academic writing and other semiotic
systems of inscription, cognitive processes in academic and scientific writing, and ethnographies in work
places), might be conducted to boost the development of the Colombian field.
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