Academic writing practices in Spanish universities

Introduction: This article aims at describing the use of written genres at university and how they are used to teach and learn. Method: We carried out a descriptive study focusing on teachers' perceptions regarding the importance of academic writing in promoting learning, the degree of competence they attribute to academic writing in comparison to other academic competences, the academic writing tasks most assigned and the criteria used to assess the quality of an academic text. Participants in this study were 106 teachers from 4 Spanish universities. Data was collected trough a translated and adapted version of the Writing Skills Appreciation Inventory. Results: Results offer a complex picture. On the one hand, teachers value writing-to-learn in their disciplines, but they do not ask students to write very frequently. On the other hand, teachers consider that students are not competent enough to use writing as a learning tool. Although they recognise the importance of writing to learn they are not used to reflect on how to use it in their disciplines. Moreover, while the presence of a clear, personal point of view is also one of the highly valued criteria for teachers, data also show that among the less valued criteria are forceful defense of a thesis or grasping the effect of the text on the reader, which seems to be clearly contradictory. Discussion and conclusions: Results offer some contradictions between the teachers' percepción about academic writing and the role that writing has in their practices. Educational implications are discussed.