Analysis of academic writing resources

Howley & Howley (2005) have developed their position on rural teachers’ professional development. The authors’ use of language will be analysed through a brief explanation of two extracts and a detailed list of discourse markers and their function in the text.

In the second paragraph of their article Howley & Howley suggest that policymakers and educators see professional development as a way to improve the quality of instruction in the classrooms across the nation. Apparently, the right kinds of professional development would improve instruction and better instruction would result in higher student achievement.

The writers’ intention is to observe that the experts who design education programmes and systems believe that proper professional training may lead to develop better teachers who would deliver their lessons efficiently and consequently students may learn more.

In order to relate their ideas throughout the article, the writers use the following discourse markers:

• to present two contrasting ideas: however, but, nevertheless;
• to add information to what has been said: in addition, for example, moreover, furthermore;
• to show that the second statement follows logically from the first statement: so, as a result;
• to give another choice apart from the one already mentioned: alternatively;
• to order a group of things: first, second, the latter concern;
• to introduce related ideas: at the same time, logically, typically, arguably

Regarding the expression “[g]rounded in management approaches (...)" (Howley, A. & Howley, C. B., 2005. p.2), it is pertinent to remark it means that some improvement strategies find support in management approaches. The whole article presents an appropriate use of discourse markers and the technical expressions explained above may not cause difficulty for the reader to understand the main idea of the text.

Reference

Howley, A. & Howley, C.B. (2005). High-Quality teaching: Providing for rural teachers’ professional development. The Rural Educator. Retrieved September 2009, from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=2809