Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education (Jun 2019)

“Students Can Write!”

  • randi benedikte brodersen,
  • Solveig Kavli

DOI
https://doi.org/10.15845/noril.v11i1.2624
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1

Abstract

Read online

Abstract The main purpose of this article is to shed light upon the concept of voice, related to sources and genres in humanities. Our goals are to raise awareness about the use of voice, in general, among students, writing tutors and supervisors and to inspire and motivate students to voice their written work explicitly – by exploring and using different genres and sources. Another goal is to participate in the academic discussion on voice. The complexity of voice is present in and shown by the many different sources students find and use, such as articles, textbooks, dissertations, interviews, films, pictures and paintings etc. Voice emerges as the authoritative voice within the academic field, for instance in textbooks and articles, as explicit and implicit voices in all kind of sources and as uttered in texts written by students. Students at all academic levels express uncertainty when working with academic texts, genres and writing. By analysing and practicing different academic genres students are empowered to explore voice and give voice to their work, in different ways.By using various sources students make choices about how to present and interact with their sources, more or less explicitly, and in that way develop their own voice. However, the sources do not carry a given answer, but can be used by the students to create new meaning(s) (Dervin, 1999; Holliday & Rogers, 2013). In this article we analyse two examples of the use of sources in academic texts, one taken from a textbook, the other from a MA thesis. By comparing these examples, we show how the two different genres illustrate different ways of using voices and sources. To get a broader perspective on voices students meet – and interact with – we have asked a selection of supervisors about their experiences and strategies on supervising students in their writing process. In the conclusion we sum up and present dialogical strategies. Some of these are mentioned by “our” supervisors and used at our writing centres. Dialogical strategies can be used by all who supervise or assist students in their writing work, especially and effectfully when dealing with voice.

Keywords