Approaches to teaching writing

The lecturer’s dilemma Iain, a psychology lecturer, became interested in the role of writing in his students’ learning for ‘selfish reasons’. When reading his students’ writing, Iain found it difficult to distinguish between their understanding of the subject matter and their expression of ideas and arguments. This problem drove him to investigate how to improve his students’ academic writing abilities. A key issue that he identified was the need for students to be able to argue and defend positions in the field of psychology in their writing. Currently, Iain and other lecturers in his department are working to build academic writing instruction into the structure of their psychology courses.