In recent decades, academic programs have increasingly integrated internships and other practica into the academic curriculum. This book investigates the discourse practices involved in ‘placement’, a practical component of academic study in which academic knowledge and professional practices become hybridized and recontextualized. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Communities of Practice, and using texts from various placement contexts supplemented with qualitative interviews, this study explores the ways in which novices learn to write like professionals.
In chapter 1, Ken Lau discusses the central question motivating his research, namely, how students learn to become professionals through engaging in tasks that constitute, and are invaluable to, professional practice. He unpacks this idea into two primary research questions, concerning first, how student workers (STWs) adapt to discourse practices during their placement, and second, how these STWs' roles influence their discourse practices with respect to their identities. Chapter 2 contextualizes the study within the overarching theoretical framework underpinning it, Communities of Practice. In this section Lau also introduces genre studies and systemic functional perspectives, which guide his subsequent textual analyses.
Chapter 3 details the methodology used for collecting and analyzing data. Lau familiarizes the reader with his informants and the various disciplines in which their placements occur; further he describes the data generated from STW placement texts and qualitative interviews, which form the backbone of the study. In chapter 4, placement is conceptualized as a form of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ wherein academic knowledge, professional knowledge and techniques, and novices' identities and roles each become recontextualized.
In chapter 5, Lau zeroes in on the ways that generic features of placement texts (created by experts) facilitate the learning of professional actions and practices. Drawing largely on systemic functional theory, he describes how pedagogical and professional practices come together and interact with the discourse practices of placement learning. Chapter 6, centering on the role of feedback and revision, provides a diachronic analysis of one STW's texts to shed light on how novices revise their texts and how they are drawn into disciplinary practices by making use of expert member feedback. Lau finds that while the fieldwork instructor rewrites nearly everything for the STW when providing overt correction (revising, among other things, word choices, nominal groups, and evaluative language), the STW takes a more active role in the revision process when prompted to respond to feedback. Chapter 7 turns to roles and identities in placement. Analyzing verbal processes in placement texts, Lau demonstrates how STWs have a hybrid status that comes with special roles in placement: on one hand, practitioners, but on the other hand, still learners. He also examines how different roles (e.g. observer, practitioner) influence discourse practices in placement.
Finally, in chapter 8, Lau concludes by summarizing the main research findings of the study, specifically, that learning to write like professionals is a gradual process that is facilitated by participating in text-mediated activities in the professional community, such as placement. Lau discusses a variety of contributions of his research, and reflects on limitations and recommendations for further study (e.g. taking a longitudinal approach and incorporating participant observation into the research process).
