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The rhetorical structure of analytical writing: a developmental approach

  • Hugo Vilar

    Hugo Vilar Weber is a Primary Education English Teacher and is currently working on his PhD in Language Teaching at the University of Barcelona with a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. His research interests include writing development, text quality and argumentation. Address for correspondence: Department of Linguistic and Literary Education, and Teaching and Learning of Experimental Sciences and Mathematics, Universitat de Barcelona, Passeig Vall d’Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Spain, E-mail: hvilar@ub.edu

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    and Liliana Tolchinsky

    Liliana Tolchinsky received her PhD in Pedagogy from Tel Aviv University and is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Barcelona. Her research interests include language and literacy acquisition and discourse analysis. Her most recent book-length publication is The Cradle of Culture: What Children Know about Writing before being Taught (2003, L. Erlbaum Associates). Address for correspondence: General Linguistics, Barcelona University, 585, Gran Via, 08007, Barcelona, Spain, E-mail: ltolchinsky@ub.edu

Published/Copyright: February 4, 2021

Abstract

Analytical writing is an academic genre that combines features of expository and argumentative discourse. Although the ability to write analytically is crucial to succeed at school and beyond, the pathway to master this type of writing mode has rarely been explored. We analyzed the writings of 226 native-speakers of Iberian Spanish from elementary school, high school and university levels, each of whom wrote two texts in Spanish. Three types of rhetorical moves were identified based on the communicative goals of analytical writing: expository, argumentative, and assertive. The findings show a developmental improvement in rhetorical structure and a transition from assertion-based texts, where writers focus on their own standpoint as the pivot of the text, to exposition-based texts, where presentation and discussion of data and of evidence become more dominant.


Corresponding author: Hugo Vilar, Department of Linguistic and Literary Education, and Teaching and Learning of Experimental Sciences and Mathematics, Universitat de Barcelona, Passeig Vall d’Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Spain, E-mail:

Award Identifier / Grant number: National Programme for the Promotion of Talent and

About the authors

Hugo Vilar

Hugo Vilar Weber is a Primary Education English Teacher and is currently working on his PhD in Language Teaching at the University of Barcelona with a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. His research interests include writing development, text quality and argumentation. Address for correspondence: Department of Linguistic and Literary Education, and Teaching and Learning of Experimental Sciences and Mathematics, Universitat de Barcelona, Passeig Vall d’Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Spain, E-mail:

Liliana Tolchinsky

Liliana Tolchinsky received her PhD in Pedagogy from Tel Aviv University and is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Barcelona. Her research interests include language and literacy acquisition and discourse analysis. Her most recent book-length publication is The Cradle of Culture: What Children Know about Writing before being Taught (2003, L. Erlbaum Associates). Address for correspondence: General Linguistics, Barcelona University, 585, Gran Via, 08007, Barcelona, Spain, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

The study was sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Grant EDU2015-65980-R). We would also like to thank all the children and teachers who participated in the study, Dr. Ruth Berman for her feedback during revision as well as the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2019-0228).


Received: 2019-07-24
Accepted: 2021-01-19
Published Online: 2021-02-04
Published in Print: 2022-01-27

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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