Mapping the Writing Resources Present as Students Transition into Upper Division Course Work in the Biological Sciences

Pedagogies that facilitate the transfer of writing skills into new settings prompt students to develop their own abstract theory of writing and explicitly consider the future implications of that theory. This qualitative study examined one writing environment students encounter after satisfying lower-division writing instruction requirements. The goal was to seek out resources that students can link to prior knowledge developed in writing courses. The study focused on one bound instructional setting, the courses recommended to students as they transition to upper-division status in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Davis (UCD). The environment was examined using ethnographic methods to provide a description of potential writing resources. 13 classroom observations were performed in four different courses. Course-related texts and writing samples were collected. Five students and three professors were interviewed. Data were analyzed using the constant comparison method, coding instances according to categories of knowledge that contribute to the kind of writing expertise required to write for a specific community. Results show that resources present in the site explicitly contribute to subject matter knowledge and writing process knowledge. There are also resources with the potential to contribute to rhetorical knowledge and genre knowledge. These findings have the potential to inform writing instruction at UCD and to help students in the biological sciences as they transition into upper-division course work. The implications these findings have for theories of writing skill transfer are discussed. The study concludes by considering the potential for reproducing this study in a number of writing environments.