Conventions in postgraduate academic writing: European students' negotiations of prior writing experience at an English speaking university

Postgraduate writing in the social sciences increasingly challenges the conventions of a model derived from the natural sciences. In addition, postgraduate second-language students usually bring with them prior experiences in academic writing which influences their writing development. Taking an Academic Literacies perspective, this ethnographically-informed case study combines and extends these lines of research in the specific context of student mobility in the European Higher Education Area. It investigates how Continental European master's students negotiate their prior experiences of academic writing when completing their theses at a UK university. The detailed analysis of three cases reveals that the students' initial understandings of academic English conventions as autonomous rules became increasingly depended on their disciplinary knowledge and the epistemological approaches of their theses. The results further highlight that the way students draw on prior experiences of academic English relates to their aims. In the light of their experiences, students might both challenge and actively preserve formal conventions of academic English. The findings suggest the need for EAP instructors and subject supervisors to adopt a balanced approach to scaffolding postgraduate academic writing and the importance of supportive institutional structures. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.