Joshua Koneski

Professor Gardiakos

ENC1102

2 November 2023

Genre Analysis and Intertextuality Paper

An academic journal article is one of the many genres included in non-literary writing.

These articles can contain many different topics and serve to inform certain populations on the

topics present in the articles. For example, the article that will be analyzed in this paper is about

the lack of academic writing that is taught at universities in Australia. The discourse community

that contains this article includes those who do research on these many topics, and for this

example, academic writing in Australia as well as those who study academic writing in general.

The article “Writing Instruction in Australia” shows how it can be considered an academic

journal article, as it includes many citations from research the author has done on the topic.

These citations can prove that the author has spent a lot of time bettering her knowledge on the

topic of academic writing in Australia, which can in return help her improve upon the knowledge

of others in the discourse community on this topic. The article includes a lot of background and

information on the topic. This is common within academic journal articles, as these articles are

made to be able to increase the knowledge of the audience on these topics.

The way that academic journal articles are usually organized is in a chronological manner.

This is also the case in this article as it tells the background to the lack of academic writing being

taught in Australia, then it leads into how they have been trying to improve on the teaching of

academic writing, and then leaving off with the goals for the future of instruction of academic

writing in Australia. The goals that include having 40% of all Australians within the ages of
25-40 have bachelor’s degrees by 2025 are discussed throughout the last parts of the article to

give the audience a more specific context. This order in the writing serves to provide an

understanding on how the topic progressed throughout the years and helps those in the discourse

community improve on their knowledge. This organization is pivotal in order to make the

writing academic.

The information included in this article contains many statistics and projections as well as

citations from many involved in the academia of Australia. This relates to many of the articles in

the same genre of academic journal articles. The use of the statistics and projections are ways to

demonstrate knowledge of the topic. The citations are also helpful in proving knowledge, but

they are also useful in showing the usefulness of discourse communities, as the article uses other

articles that are part of the discourse community to expand knowledge of others in the discourse

community. This helps out the discourse community, as they are able to build the knowledge of

others using the knowledge that others in the past have had.

The language used in the article is definitely that of a higher knowledge level. The article

uses language that would be common to see in academic writing, as that is what is necessary for

the article to be taken seriously. Lower-level language would make the article seem less

academic and might be disregarded as being very knowledgeable because of the language used.

Higher-level language is commonly used in discourse communities as these are more

professional and, therefore, use professional language. The words used in the article are also

more complex words that can be found in academic spaces, which the audience is included in.

Using this language wouldn’t be too complex for the audience, as they understand the words that

are used.
 The academic journal articles help to get things done in the discourse communities as they

show a collection of knowledge that can be used to help those in the communities gain

knowledge on these topics. In this article, the topic of academic writing in Australia can help

those that are a part of the audience of this article become more knowledgeable on this topic and

in return they can contribute to the discourse community by adding more discourse in the form of

more writing, such as an academic journal article on the topic. Letting people know about the

topic can also help those who are included in the article, as those in the discourse communities

can help those by contributing to the betterment of those affected in the article.

With the use of many citations in the article, intertextuality can be easily seen throughout

the article. The author of “Writing Instruction in Australia” uses these works to help the article as

they provide insight in the topic that are helpful to make the article more understandable and add

knowledge that otherwise would be missing in the article.

One of the sources is an article that is written by the former Vice Chancellor of the

University of Melbourne. This article gives a primary source to the academic journal that builds

and boosts its credibility to the topic of academic writing in Australia. This primary source is

used in the article multiple times, but it also has one of the biggest chunks of citation in the

article. This quote is used to describe a concept that is important to the topic in a more complex

way than the author of the academic journal article does. The concept of Path Dependency is

mentioned before the quote, but is explained in the quote and is discussed by the former Vice

Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, who is more familiar on the term than the author of

the academic journal article.

Another source cited in the article discusses the projections that are included in the article.

These projections provide insight into the topic, as they show the goals of how many young
adults will have bachelor degrees in Australia in the future. This is important, as it helps the

author of the academic journal article to discuss the importance of the academic writing in

Australia, a it will help those in college in Australia to be better students. With the use of the

source, the article is able to show the importance of the topic, which leads to a better

understanding for the people who are in the discourse community.

Another Source cited in the article is from a study done in Australia. This source adds a level of

research that was not included in this article before the source was added. This source creates

more of an understanding of the previous research, which helps the audience understand the

background of the Australian Universities that are a main focus in this academic journal article.

This background helps the audience realize the functionality of the universities and therefore

build their knowledge on the key concepts presented in the article. This all helps to build more of

an understanding that can be useful to know for this discourse community.

These sources do all have different purposes than each other as well as having a different

purpose than the main article. The source written by the former Vice Chancellor of the

University of Melbourne talks about how the universities work successfully in maintaining good

educators, who are able to teach the students of the universities, all that they need to know to be

successful in life. This source goes against what is being talked about in the main article as the

main article thinks that there are flaws in the Australian university system while this article

thinks that there are not flaws in the system and that they are doing everything correctly. The

second source is a report that was done by a professor and a doctor that talks about the widening

participation in Australian higher education. This source talks about including those who would

normally not have a chance to pursue higher education To have a chance at attending a

university, and how they believe that the system will be better for those students in the future,
while also giving projections to what they believe will happen based on their research. The last

source which is a study on employers perspectives on graduate requirements in Australia gives

an insight on how it is hard for many different businesses to find qualified graduates or

candidates in general who fit for the jobs that they are looking for this could be because of the

lack of the Academic writing, that is not taught much in Australia, which then causes the

candidates to be lacking in those fields. The source goes hand-in-hand, most with the main

article out of the three sources as the study shows a lot of the evidence behind what the author is

trying to go across in the main article.

Out of all of these sources, I think that one source could have been used more in the article,

and that once sources the study, as there is a lot of extra evidence that could have been used from

the study in the article that could further prove the point that the author of the article is trying to

get across. The other two sources do not provide much evidence for this article, and I believe that

the author was able to use the evidence nothing they got from those sources very well. Anything

else that they could have added from? Those sources might have messed with what they were

trying to get across as they did not relate much to the topic at hand the other source did relate to

the topic at hand a bit. I also think that less could have been used from the source that was made

by the former vice chancellor of the University of Melbourne As Just a little bit of evidence from

a paper that is going against what the main message of the article is, could work against you as it

causes one to Get a little confused as to why one would put that in their article, when they are

trying to prove the opposite of what the quote is saying. It also causes someone to maybe

understand the other side more when that is the opposite of what the offer is trying to do in this

article. All in all, I believe that the offer did a good job at picking the evidence that they wanted

to use in their article.

 The use of the Intertext in the article proves that the author has a good understanding of the

topic that is at hand. All of this put together can help The audience become more knowledgeable

on this topic and can help the audience become part of the discourse community. These are the

standards Of academic journal articles. This article is a great example of everything that entails

an academic journal article.

Works Cited

Thomas, Susan E. “Writing Instruction in Australia.” Composition Studies, vol. 49, no. 3.

Gale, Trevor, and Stephen Parker. "Widening Participation in Australian Higher Education."

Report submitted to Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and The Office

for Fair Access (OFFA), Leicester, UK,

https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/publications/widening-participation-australian-higher-edu-cation/

"Graduate Careers Australia. Graduate Outlook 2014: Employers' Perspectives on Graduate

Recruitment in Australia. http://www.graduatecareers.com.au/wp-content/

uploads/2015/06/Graduate_Outlook_2014.pdf.

Davis, Glyn. "The Australian Idea of a University." Meanjin Quarterly, 2012, https://

meanjin.com.au/essays/the-australian-idea-of-a-university/.