Teaching development grants final and financial report: The development of “The academic writing handbook for students of language and education programmes”

There has been a trend in Language and Education programmes for learning outcomes, focusing on the awareness of an academic discourse community where both pre- and in-service language teachers and educators create and communicate discipline knowledge through academic writing. There has also been a shift in the assessment requirements in the Bachelor of Education and Arts (BEd and BA) programmes from examinations to multiple and multi-mode assessment tasks, involving 'academic writing'. As a result, there are increasing needs among the students of language and education programmes for quality 'academic writing' input and training. The proposed ' Academic Writing Handbook for Students of Language and Education Programmes' aims to cater for the immediate needs of the BEd and BA students in relation to their module-specific academic writing tasks. The 'Handbook' addresses the basic issues that are most commonly faced by the current BEd and BA students. It covers discipline-specific academic essay constructs, academic vocabulary, essential grammar, paragraph writing, writing research papers, revising, editing, referencing skills and new dimensions for academic writing, including collaborative wikibook project writing. The outcomes of the TDG project include 1) the publication of 'The Academic Writing Handbook for Students of Language and Education Programmes' and 2) the development of a parallel stand-alone website, making the 'Handbook' interactive with the readers in terms of providing online academic writing toolkits, academic writing discussion forums, and wikibook projects.