The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

Student writers will come to you for help because they need to produce some analyses of their
academic discourse communities, and the analyses are usually based on articles or scholarly journals that
are retrieved online. Analyses are typed in a form of academic writing and revised several times during
the semester. Finally, peers and instructors would review the final writing again, revised by the writer,
and then kept in the writer’s portfolio for submission.
The academic writing has conventions that must be followed, but bear in mind that writing
conventions differ in different fields. Therefore, as a rule, writing conventions have the following primary
features as illustrated previously, such as: purpose, audience, persona, text, and genre. It is important to
remember that these criteria are the main reasons why writers from the English 109M/109W will want
some assistance because most of them do not understand the gist of the features. In so doing, let us take a
look at the primary features of any rhetorical situation so that when writers show their assigned projects,
you as tutors will be able to communicate effectively how the features are applied to their academic
discourse communities.
• Purpose
Almost all English 109M/109W writers who come to me always struggle with the purpose. They
seem to interchange it with objective which takes on a different meaning. As defined by the
Sacramento State Student Writing Handbook, a purpose could “include the goals the writer has
for his/her writing, that purpose that is set out for the writer in a teacher’s assignment, and the
influence of factors like the audience writing is addressing.”
Example: Mark Bauerlein’s writing of this article is to raise awareness of change nd
development in the use of the technology in schools. For example, he writes “because
writing is a deep habit, when students sit down and compose on a keyboard, they slide into
the mode of writing…” (25). This quote further proves…
• Audience
In the writing center, I have not encountered any writer who is not aware of their audience.The
writers know full well that teachers are their primary audience. However, teachers can play a
variety of roles when they read and respond to writer’s writing. At other times, teachers play the
role of representatives of their academic field and they will respond to the writer as a biologist, a
nurse, an engineer, etc. For example, I have seen teachers assign a project whereby a writer is to
create a memo targeting the audience of their own discourse community. In so doing, the
audience will affect the purpose for writing, the persona the writer takes on, and the way the
writer develops and organizes the text.
Example: The audience or target readers of Mark Bauerlein’s article are scholars,
researchers, academicians, futurists, students, and individuals or organizations
belonging to his English and non-English academic discourse communities who
understand and respond to the changes and development of the technological
revolutions. For example…
• Persona
Of all the writing features that have been mentioned, I think the persona is the easiest to explain
because it is how the writer presents himself/herself. It can also include the voice,
stance, tone, and style a writer takes on in their writing. Furthermore, it includes a writer’s
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