Below Standard Academic Writing

 Raković, M., Marzouk, Z., Chang, D.,& Winne, P.W. (2019). Towards knowledge transforming in writing argumentative essays from multiple sources: A methodological approach. Companion Proceedings 9th International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge (LAK19), AZ, USA.

 

In this article the writers examine the difficulties post-secondary students deal with when writing argumentative essays. The study of essay samples through computational tools reveals that when writing academically, the main issue relies on both the tendency to restate information borrowed from other sources, and the inability to analyse, synthesise and evaluate them properly, preventing writers from achieving knowledge-transformation in their productions. This article might provide an interesting insight for academic writers, since it emphasises the idea of metacognition as an essential prerequisite for creating meaningful interpretations of sources, rather than repeating what is stated in them.  However, it is mainly descriptive and it may seem to fall short to provide a practical guidance for the development of knowledge-transformation skills.