Academic Literacy and Genres in University Learning Communities

Abstract The study of genre through different perspectives has contributed to a better understanding of how writing performs a major role in the enculturation process students must undergo when entering the university context. Considering that written genres instantiate the specific practices of disciplines, their different ways of doing and knowing (Carter, 2007), this study aims, by means of a qualitative approach, at exploring the way literacy in academic writing is addressed, according to the discourse of teachers and students of five different disciplinary communities at a Chilean university, based on the approach to their particular genres. The results reveal that, in the communities addressed, literacy in academic writing is conceived under two distinctive orientations: a formative and a prescriptive one, each of them associated to genres displaying expert and instructional characteristics, respectively.