Facilitating L2 Writers' Interpretation of Source Texts

Student success in higher education often involves the effective integration of source texts into students' writing. Teaching L2 students to write from sources is challenging because of several issues, including limited practice with reading-to-write tasks and limited knowledge about the organizational structure (at many levels) of the texts they are reading and those they are expected to write. In this pedagogical article the researchers present key reading-to-write instructional interventions. The interventions promote reading-to-write development by moving from comprehension of source materials to a focus on students' capacities to interpret (i.e., summarize and paraphrase) source texts.

Reading-to-Write: Exploring a Cognitive and Social Process

The Social and Cognitive Studies in Writing and Literacy Series, is devoted to books that bridge research, theory, and practice, exploring social and cognitive processes in writing and expanding our knowledge of literacy as an active constructive process--as students move from high school to college.
This descriptive study of reading-to-write examines a critical point in every college student's academic performance: when he or she is faced with the task of reading a source, integrating personal ideas, and creating an individual text with a self-defined purpose.