Some accompaniment and support devices to address the writing of specialized academic texts in latin american higher education institutions

Abstract

Access to Higher Education Institutions requires students to undergo a process of transformation regarding reading, writing and oral practices. This adaptability and acculturation finds its response mainly in the writing of specialized academic texts, which are projected not only as a strategy for the acquisition of knowledge, but also as a representation of reasoning that allows communicating knowledge among subjects belonging to a specific academic community. Those who enter the university system still lack the necessary coordinates for the writing of scientific texts codified in discursive genres that present a specialist in the discipline as the ideal addressee. In view of this, one of the initiatives to promote the deployment of writing skills is the implementation of support devices such as mentoring, tutoring, and counseling. Within this framework, the objective of this article is to present some strategies that can be adopted by Higher Education Institutions to guide the acculturation process of students with respect to the writing of specialized academic texts. For this purpose, the narrative review method was used to build the general framework on the subject. In conclusion, it is stated that the current discussion does not revolve around whether it is appropriate or not to deal with writing in universities, but to determine how, who, where, and for what purpose to undertake this action.