Teaching Research Writing to Chinese Graduate Students: A Guided Discovery Genre Approach

One of the biggest challenges graduate-level research writing instructors face is how to motivate students in large and multidisciplinary classes effectively. This article explores the influence of a guided inductive and discovery-based genre approach on improving students’ knowledge of research writing. A questionnaire survey was conducted, and some of the students’ written assignments were analyzed. The survey results show that the students were generally satisfied with this approach and affirmed its effectiveness in increasing their knowledge of the textual organization, format and documentation, and language style in research writing. Examining the students’ written analysis of the move structure of abstracts indicates that this approach has enhanced the students’ ability to identify moves and facilitated their acquisition of more appropriate genre knowledge. Further examination of the students’ written reflections reveals a more in-depth understanding of their learning experience. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.