Three-Minute Paper: Complexity in academic writing

“The paper I have chosen is Staples et al. (2016), which can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088316631527

I have chosen this paper as I often feel the notion of being concise in STEM discourses can be problematic in that it may be misleading in terms of depth and in terms of how syntactically challenging concision can be.

I hope this paper creates a discussion around how we notice and ascertain linguistic complexity in STEM discourses and how we support this in our pre-sessional, foundation or in-sessional syllabus through activities to support the processing and production of texts. This links to my scholarship interests in how much linguistic metalanguage and linguistic analyses is useful in the EAP and EAP for STEM classroom/syllabus.”

References

Staples, S., Egbert, J., Biber, D. and Gray, B. 2016. Academic Writing Development at the University Level: Phrasal and Clausal Complexity Across Level of Study, Discipline, and Genre. Written Communication. 33 (2), pp. 149-183.

Post session notes

Here is the link to the recording of this session: Three Minute Paper led by Natasha Rust, University of Leeds-20230314_150538-Meeting Recording.mp4

The discussion questions within the session and to be continued for those who are interested:

How could we (the BALEAP STEM SIG) use a similar methodology to observe variation within science writing/STEM disciplines and among genres? Could we develop our own corpus as a community?

How is grammatical complexity embedded into your STEM curriculum/syllabi? Is it focussed at a processing and production level? Tied/linked to genre?

What methods do you use to ascertain complex features of language and patterns within the STEM discipline you teach within?

How do we (continue to) or how can we show/clarify how L1 and L2 writers equally need to develop their awareness of language complexity within the discipline and for specific genres within disciplines to STEM lecturers, curriculum designers and both L1 and L2 students?

What metalanguage is useful/successful in classroom discussions on grammatical complexity? Do you use any of the metalanguage used within the paper? Do you see the need to use this metalanguage and indeed the need to explore language in this way?

Do we feel there is a different emphasis to grammatical complexity within EAP for STEM? If so, how could we communicate this to the wider EAP community or practitioners new to STEM?