1,720,961 research outputs found
An investigation into written genres used by professional social workers and taught to social work students in Botswana
Full text linkProfessional communication is growing in the field of applied linguistics. A lot of
research has been done on business communication in different work places.
However there is not much done on Social work professional communication in
Botswana.
This study analysed the types of texts produced by social workers in their
professional setting, in order to find out whether there is a relationship between the
writing done by professional social workers and the writing taught to social workers
by the Communication and Study Skills department at the University of Botswana.
The research method for this study combines two major research tools in qualitative
inquiry which are text analysis and interviews. A range of documents were collected
from social workers, these included informal documents, hand written during
interviews with clients, to more formal reports that were addressed to relevant
officers in the position of making decisions recommended in the reports. The
documents were analysed using a new rhetoric approach to genre. I used a
combination of text analysis and interviews in order to investigate the contexts in
which the texts were produced.
Academic texts produced by students during their fieldwork placement were also
explored. The texts that the students write are long and unlike the reports produced
by professionals, which focuses on the client’s story, they describe what the students
have done and achieved. The significance is that; this discrepancy raises questions
about the extent to which students are being prepared for professional writing.
Students have indicated that their academic writing varies according to the preferences of individual lecturers rather than the requirements of the work situation
and that after internship they are never given feedback about their performance and
they also need additional training before they engage in fieldwork. I found that both
formal and informal documents are written following a set format which reflects the
precise institutional function of the text, but experienced social workers can
manoeuvre the format creatively to communicate effectively about their clients. I
have also found that professional genre has 9 moves while the students had 6 moves.
This study aims to improve knowledge of writing of professional social workers and
the writing of social work students on fieldwork placements in Botswana which
might also be applicable to other settings. It will also provide a detailed discussion of
effective pedagogies that will help social work students develop more of the
competencies that are recognised in the workplace
Transitivity in social work reports: A case of destitution reports written by professional social workers in Botswana
Full text linkSocial work in Botswana is a rapidly developing profession. In the last fifty or so years, the role of the social worker has changed, from distributing practical help to taking on roles that were previously filled via age- and status-based social structures. A lot of research has been done on business communication in different workplaces. However, there is not much done on Social work professional communication in Botswana. This study, which is part of a longer study, analysed the types of texts produced by social workers in their professional settings. The research method for this study combines two major research tools in the qualitative inquiry, which are text analysis and interviews. Sixty-four (64) destitution reports were collected and analysed. Six (6) professional social workers were also interviewed to share their experiences in writing the reports. The findings show the powers that the social workers have over their clients
MOVES IN SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS’ REPORTS
Full text linkThis study investigates the rhetorical move structure of case reports written by Social work students during their fieldwork placement. Twenty six case reports were collected and interviewed twelve students from department of social work office. Reports were analysed using move analysis (Bhatia 2003) I am looking at moves in student reports that indicate the communicative purposes in the texts and how language is used to express these moves or to achieve the communicative purpose. The findings show that students’ reports have six moves, and the reports have two communicative purposes
Citations of first year students at the University of Botswana
Full text linkAcademic disciplines are often called discourse communities in research into academic discourse. Citing and referring to other authors in writing shows respect to the intellect of individuals. Students need to cite sources properly in order to be members of the Academic discourse community. This study explored in-text citations in research projects written by first-year students in the Faculty of Education at the University of Botswana. Using Swales’ notion of a discourse community, text analysis and qualitative content analysis, twenty research projects were analysed and three students and two lecturers were interviewed. The findings suggest that students need to be taught the importance of in-text citations and also be assisted to be members of the academic discourse community. There is a need for clear guidelines on citations and regulations for in-text citations and plagiarism for students as soon as they are admitted into their first academic year.
Professional writing : description of the writings of social workers in Botswana
Full text linkThe main purpose of this study is to identify the professional writing needs of undergraduate students studying social work in the University of Botswana. In order to do this, it seeks to analyse the types of texts produced by social workers in their professional setting, to find out what relationship exists between the writing done by professional social workers and the writing taught in the dedicated English Language Support unit at the University of Botswana, and to explore the similarities and differences between the documents written by the students and those produced by professional social workers. It also examines current approaches to teaching writing in the University, with the aim of identifying the writing needs of social work students and exploring how these can be effectively addressed
COLLABORATIVE ACADEMIC WRITING
Full text linkMany studies have examined the provision of academic writing development at tertiary level (Horowitz, 1986, Webb 1997, Pally 2001 and Zhu 2004, Magogwe & Nkateng 2017) but not focussing on collaborative writing. Students in Botswana seem to have difficulties appreciating the value of collaborative work in their writing classes and yet working in groups is an important mode of learning. This paper explores how students can benefit from collaborative approaches to academic writing. It will also share experiences of first year students at the University of Botswana (UB) when it comes to collaborative learning and teaching strategies in writing modules. Data for this study was collected from essays that students wrote about collaborative writing. The findings inform teachers of academic writing on ways of improving collaborative writing in their courses
Genre exploration : a frame for understanding and teaching social work writing in Botswana
Full text linkIn Botswana, social workers are trained via a Bachelor’s degree or a Diploma in social work taught at the university (Osei-Hwedie et al. 2006). Their training includes professional writing and yet both new social workers and their managers report that new social workers experience significant difficulties when writing professional documents. This study looks at the issue from two perspectives. Firstly, it offers a detailed description of some of the texts which professional social workers in Botswana write, and the circumstances in which they do so. It finds that the documents studied are highly intertextual; that they exhibit certain regularities in terms of pragmatic moves through which they achieve a communicative purpose; and that language choices indicate a variety of positions which the social worker may adopt towards the client. Based on our description, we then discuss a pedagogic approach designed to help social work students gain their own critical understanding of the texts which they will write, and so be better prepared for the demands of the professional writing practices of which the texts form a part
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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