By Eileen K. McCluskey

Special to the Gazette

Righting the Writing

When dealing with the challenges facing international students, it quickly becomes clear how cultural and the intellectual issues are closely tied together.

"An example of the combined issues of language and acculturation may be the kind of written expression that is required here, particularly during exams," notes the Business School's Maureen Walker, assistant director of Academic and Course Services. "In U.S. business communication, the writer is expected to be concise and direct. In other cultures, this form of expression is considered at best impersonal, and at worst, impolite. Since most people revert to their cultural comfort zones when stressed -- and most people feel stressed when taking exams -- they often write exams that may be perfectly acceptable in another culture, but which are totally inadequate here. Therefore, they end up looking less proficient than they actually are."

The Business School helps international students sharpen their writing skills by, for instance, offering a number of tutoring resources. These services include writing tutorials and class participation support, and address other issues such as managing instructor/student relationships.

Rosalind Michahelles, acting director of International Education at the Graduate School of Education, agrees that "writing can be difficult for international students, because, for many, English is a foreign language. Writing in English may not come naturally to them in part because thoughts are organized and presented differently in many other countries. For example, while Americans tend to lead with the main idea and then back it up, in some other cultures you build to the main idea, or you always present its opposite as well, in order to demonstrate a grasp of the complexities." To help students cultivate American-style writing skills, the GSE has established a writing lab in which students can work one-on-one with graduate assistants.

Academic Honesty

Michahelles notes that "another issue, related to writing, is that of academic honesty. For international students, the conventions of how, for example, you treat material from another source can be quite different. We try to make sure that international students understand the basic conventions of U.S. research writing, such as paraphrasing, summarizing, giving credit, and quoting."

Garth McCavana, assistant dean for student affairs at the GSAS, has also found that "an area of American academic culture that has proved difficult for some international students is the question of academic honesty. We sometimes face the issues of students who are unclear about the concept of plagiarism and ownership of ideas, and of how seriously such issues are taken in American academia. It is not that these students have set out to deceive," stresses McCavana, "but they haven't had the same training in the use of sources that their American counterparts have had, and so they sometimes don't pay close enough attention to details such as footnotes and attribution."

This issue, along with other basics about American academia, are discussed during the GSAS orientation process, "both to get the issues out on the table and to begin to clarify the rules," says McCavana.