Transitioning to academic success: Textual change and reflexivity in the writing of international postgraduate students

This chapter focuses on international postgraduate students in the Australian higher education context and their transition to writing success in formal assessmenttasks.Internationalhighereducationoffersstudentsopportunities to broaden their horizons and to develop new knowledge about cultures, languages anddiscipline areas (oecd, 2013a). Integral to the development of new knowledge is writing; through particular lexicogrammatical features a writer can “freeze” the world for the purposes of examination and explanation (Halliday, 1985). Concrete experiences are reformulated in abstracted and generalisedtermsachievingwiderapplicationandrelevance.Forthesereasons,writtentextshavelongbeenassociatedwiththepresentationanddisseminationof scientific knowledge.