Developing and Assessing Academic and Professional Writing Skills

Academic literacy is no longer considered a by-product of academic socialization but a complex set of skills that need to be developed actively. This book addresses the questions of how academic and professional writing skills can be fostered in our multilingual and multicultural societies and how these skills can be measured.

is Professor of Applied Linguistics and is a post-doctoral writing researcher and instructor at the University of Giessen/Germany. Their research focuses on the development of plurilingual skills including translation competence and academic literacy.

Contents: Christine S. Sing: Writing for specific purposes: Developing business students’ ability to «technicalize» – Hans Malmström/Diane Pecorari/Magnus Gustafsson: Coverage and development of academic vocabulary in assessment texts in English Medium Instruction – Liana Konstantinidou/Joachim Hoefele/Otto Kruse: Assessing writing in vocational education and training schools: Results from an intervention study – Susanne Göpferich/Imke Neumann: Writing competence profiles as an assessment grid? – Students’ L1 and L2 writing competences and their development after one semester of instruction – Sandra Ballweg: Portfolios as a means of developing and assessing writing skills – Sabine Dengscherz/Melanie Steindl: «Prepare an outline first and then just write spontaneously» – An analysis of students’ writing strategies and their attitudes towards professional writing.