Writing for transition: The role of food studies in the general academic writing classroom

Abstract

Consistent with ongoing efforts to improve the transition of students to university, this article conceptualises the general academic writing classroom as a potentially complex but productive pedagogic space. Those who design and deliver curricula in academic writing face particular challenges around translating into practice two principles that are foundational to transitional students' experience: inclusion and engagement. This article presents food studies as a rich interdisciplinary resource for those who strive to construct an inclusive and stimulating learning environment for transitional students of academic writing. It draws on experience in designing and delivering a first-year unit that develops general academic writing skills and involves scaffolded written assessments tasks culminating in the research-based essay. Because such units are taken by students from a range of disciplines, a specific challenge in setting questions for written assessment tasks is to engage all students in such ways that learning experiences are relevant, inclusive and motivating. Questions on food and drink provide common ground for students, and stimulate engagement and inquiry. Supporting and contextualising this argument is scholarship from higher education studies, and scholarship that defines and describes the characteristics of food studies as a field of enquiry. The article extends a body of scholarship, well represented in TEXT, on the synergetic relation between food and writing, and writing pedagogy.