CONFERENCING: AN INTERACTIVE STRATEGY IN 
TEACHING ACADEMIC WRITING 

Wienny ArdriyatP and Sri Murtiningsih2 

Abstract: Writing plays (III essential role ill o"r personal al/(I 
proft'ssiotUlI UI'es. It becomes one of the important components in . 
learning anc! teaching English for Academic P"rposes (EAP). This Q'''';:;;'JiJ:''.:~;O\' 
article shOll'S that teaching writing by "sing a conference technique p:r~ A,\:i 
is (//1 effectil'l' way for COllllllllllicaril'e interaction p"rposes. In this \"~~"" >~:';~) 
COli text, the teaching of writillg for tht' .\'t"de/lls in their widely 1> ':~.;;:i~ 
I'(/r),illg persollal IIeeds and goals call bt, ill tht' form ofcOI!ferencil/g, ;<:-RPtJSTA~r>-~'" 
a .\'llOrt muting between the stlle/ellts and the t('ache,: Teachillg 
writing thro"gh cmiferencing gil'!'s sml/e bel/ejits. for instal/ce, it 
enables the teacher to modify and at/apt instrllctionallllethoc!s and 
approaches according to the sllldents' /leeds. Academic writing 
implies (l sllccessflll tr(II/SlIIis,.ion ofideasjrol/l the Il'riter to Cl reacler 
thm"gh (l text. becallse there! is (11/ exchallge of ilifOl"llwtioll. \I"h"ch 
becomes a powe,flll means to en cOl/rage the del'elopment this 
lclllglla,~t' skill. 
Key words: olle-on-one cOf,j"erencing. di.\'col/r.H'. int('l"(lctil"e. 

INTRODUCTION 
Writing is a very individual skill. with each person having his or her 

own particular feelings. ideas and even problems can express them in it. 
Each person will also have different means of expressing ideas and how (0 
organize these ideas in the form of writing. 

Writing teachers have acknowledged these problems and have provided 
individual feedback to their students. The common form of feedback in the 
past has been written comments on the students' final paper, pointing out 
problems and giving suggestions for improvement of future papers. 

Dra. Wienny Ardriyati, M.Pd. is a lecturer HI STIE Stikuhank. Scmarang. She 
received her M.Pd. from State University of Semarang. 
Dra. Sri Murtiningsih is a lecturer at STIE Stikubank. Semarang. 



100 Celt, Volume 5. Number 2. Dcccll10er 2005 : 99· 109 

Since writing has become one of the essential components for academic 
purposes, writing teachers should know that its multifarious pedagogical 
purposes range from reinforcement, training and imitation [0 communication, 
fluency and learning style. 

Writing teachers should favor a process approach to teaching writing 
skills through conferencing from the outset. since traditional classroom 
methods cannot provide students with all the instructional assistance that is 
needed to become professional writers. The social orientation becomes 
visible and highlights the writer-text-reader interaction. Therefore, purpose 
and audience are all important in the production of discourse while the 
functional dimension of communication is reinforced. Students need to he 
familiarized with specifying discursive conventions and constraints. The 
writing teachers also adhere to a genre approach to teaching writing (Swales 
1990). 

The social purposes of a communicative event exert a powerful 
influence on the textual choices a writer makes and. for this reason. the 
students should be made aware of the sets of schemata which determine 
both the content and the form of tht: texts they will be asked to produce. so 
preparation for the tasks will comprise exposure to authentic material plus a 
thorough discourse analysis of the different genres before they begin to develop 
their own texts. The implementation of a discourse-oriented writing approach 
will make the students acquire an effective command of the foreign language 
in a range of familiar situations. By generating and encouraging interactive 
writing. not just texts per se to be read and graded by the teacher. the students 
will obtain self-confidence. fluency, and they will be stimulated to express 
their own authentic voices in the process of text production. 

DISCOURSE APPROACH TO WRITING 
The discourse approach to writing follows a task-based framework 

which aims to encourage d'l'isroum interaction so as to maximize opportunities 
for students to pOl their language to genuine use and to create a Illore effective 
learning environment (Willis 1996: 19). The focus of the tasks can vary, ranging 
from an emphasis on discursive skills (selection of topic, disposition of the 
information, complexities ofullerances,lexical choices of the text according 
to the students' development stages) to a more functional focus (informing. 
persuading, convincing, entertaining, and so on). 



W. Ardriyati and S. Murtiningsih, Confcrcncing: 101 

The combination of skills is fostered. depending on the task and its 
complexities, so that along the drafting-writing-revision procedure, listening. 
speaking. reading. and writing will overlap. involving thinking. talking. consulting 
sources. doing research. peer editing. interacting in groups and the like. For 
certain cases, cultural aspects are important and students may need some 
help to get familiarized with specific conventions and constraints in the target 
culture. Different cultural background may cause some writers (in this case 
students) to feel uncomfortable with personal or shared writing. (Leki 1992. 
as quoted from http://web.ics.purdue.edu/-magits/ kairoselect/ 
hteoryoutline.htm). In all cases. the situation has to be made clear to students. 
so that they can determine roles. conditions. effects on the interlocutor and 
standards to be achieved. In other words. the teacher gives a task. The 
teacher outlines the activities in the real world that the students typically do 
in their first language lives and reflect some canonical genres in particular 
discourse formats. 

ACADEMIC WRITING 
Talking about academic writing. the writers/students must know about 

the audience and purposes. They must also learn about writing conventions. 
Writing conventions includes patterns expected by the academic reader in 
such areas as (a) overall organization, (b) functions of paragraphing, (c) the 
amount and kind of evidence (d) the appropriate use of word-signals to help 
direct the reader. and (e) the use of citations. 

In general. academic writing assignments share similar writing 
conventions in their overall organization. The length of the p.lrts of the paper 
depends on the actual assignment. "Many academic assignments usually 
contain an introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion. An academic 
essay is u series of purugraphs ubout one topic: each paragraph has a specific 
t'lIIH.:tion'· (Reid 2000: (6). 

The first is introduction. It is the first paragraph in the essay. It orients 
the audience by giving a little background information about the topic. It 
states the thesis of the essay. 

The body of the essay hus the functions to explain. define. clarify, and 
illustrate the main idea of the essay and to explain to the audience that the 
writer's ideas and opinions are worthwhile. 

The last is conclusion. It completes the essay by summarizing the 
muin ideas by providing solutions to the problems discussed in the essay. 



102 Celt. Volumc 5. Number 2. Deccmber 2005 : 99 - 109 

Almost all academic essays require the writers to explain ideas and 
opinions, and often persuade the audience that the ideas are worthwhile. To 
get good results from academic writing essays the writing teacher should 
explain about what the writing conventions arc. After that the teacher can 
use the interactive techniques to teach writing to gain good results from the 
students' writing. The interactive techniques used can be conferencing or 
group research. After using this technique, the students should know how to 
write good academic writing, 

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD WRITERS 
Good writing in any language involves knowledge of the conventions 

of written discourse in that culture as well as the abilities to choose words 
that convey one's meanings. select a variety of syntactic structures those 
that transmit one's message most precisely, and adopt a style that will have 
most positive rhetorical effect. Obviously, such expertise will not develop 
merely from pnlctice exercises in grammar and vocabulary at the sentence 
level. Exercises in paragraphing. including the writing of topic sentences and 
the use of supporting detail of various types. as well as activities promoting 
the development of discourse skills beyond paragraph level are also important 
elements to include in writing. Krashen (as cited in Omag~io. 1986: 221-226) 
reviewed research on the composing process in the native language that 
good writers differ from poor writers in at least three ways: 

I. Plallllillg. Good writers show some evidence of planning or 
organizing before they sit down to write the first draft. They 
tend to have flexible plans and do not feel compelled to stick to 
their original ideas if they sec a reason for changing the course 
of their thinking while in the process of composing. 

2. Resell/millg. Good writers often stop to reread what they have 
already written before continuing to compose 

3. Rel'ising. Good writers make more changes in content amI try 
to find the line of their argument in the finished draft in order to 
see if revisions arc necessary. 

One additional characteristic of good writers is their awareness of 
their audience and their concenlS for the reader's point of view. They are 
reader-centered and use words with special meanings and organize an 
exposition of ideas that characterizes good work of writing. 



W. Ardriyati and S. Murtiningsih, Conferencing: 103 

INTERACTIVE WRITING 
Writing is an interactive process by nature since it develops the symbolic.; 

interplay between writers. text and reader. By making situations more 
'authentic.;' than the ones in the traditional classroom tasks, awareness of 
audience, purpose and intention is reinforced. While planning a written piece. 
the writer is constrained to consider the audience and to adopt a reader-
oriented approach so as to achieve a persuasive. emotive or objective function. 
Interact.ivity can be promoted in. the writ~ng class by implanting SOI~~".",: ~ 

suggesllons. such as the conferenclIlg techmque. .»;1:~. :)~~'I~;~; 
~ ~b,'~~ I) 

A. Confe~enc~ng Technique . . ~;;::~.,~~,1 
Conferenclllg IIlvolves a short meetlllg of about 10 to 15 mlA;llX~~ "'~ 

between the student and the teacher. It is one-on-one teaching. Students a~'STA\(" 
helped by verbal cues and the teacher gives them freedom to work on a task 
with a small amount of guidance, an experience which can be achieved 
through conferencing. Conferencing provides the leaner with an opportunity 
to learn how to avoid errors. It allows the student to ask questions and allows 
the teacher to ask the students their perceptions of what they arc doing. 
Both student and teacher will face the most significant technique used in 
writing class. 

The purpose of conferencing is to provide an opportunity for the 
students to learn about the process of writing; to focus attention on their own 
work from a fresh perspective: to generate and clarify their ideas and 
audiences; to model writing: to provide support with editing skills: to assess 
the students ongoing process: to identify areas of writing that need to he 
developed and to establish future goals in writing. 

Let's take a look of an example developed by Marshall (1986). She 
developed in her classes around her conferencing sessions. in which she 
addressed meaning in the composition first. and then the forms. AI the 
beginning of the conferencing. students disclIssed their ideas for papers. In 
the next conference. students brought their first drafts and discussed them 
with the leader. She planned class lessons based on the students' needs that 
were shown in the conferences. She found this method to be more effective 
for the teacher and more effective for the students. 

Other forms of conferencing include collaborative conferencing. small 
group conferencing, third person conferencing, group research, journaling 
and so on. 



104 Celt, Volume 5. Number 2. December 2005 : 99 - 109 

B. A Small Group Confcrcncing 
In this group conferencing. the teacher meets students in groups of 

three or ten. Often the teacher divides the group according to their needs or 
writing weaknesses. The writing process may focus on the introduction. 
modeling or reinforcement on a specific writing skill. Small group conferencing 
takes less time and offers students more feedback than regular classes. 
Group dynamics sometimes help students speak up and find out their writing 
problems. 

C. Peer Conferencing 
In peer conferencing students independently listen and give feedback 

to their fellow student-writers. Using what they have learned in the teacher-
student individual conferences. the peer will comment on various pre-
detennined aspects of writing. In peer conferences, students need to know 
how to maintain a helpful and supportive relationship. Since collaboration 
among student writers does not occur spontaneously, teachers need to take 
time to model good responses and set some ground rules such as the following: 

J. Be positive. Respond to what the writer is trying to say and 
what the writer does well. 

2. Be IIelpflil. Do your best to make comments that will be useful 
to the writer. 

3. Be specific. Talk about specific words, phrases, or paragraphs. 

The tone of the response should be positive. It should emphasize what 
is going well and how to make things even better. Peer conferencing needs 
to be in a quiet area away from others. 

Confercncing takes place every time teachers and students meet to 
give requested ,md teacher-initiated feedback: to respond to revisions. and 
to provide support for final editing. While the students are writing 
independently. the teacher is able to conference with an individual student of 
a group about their writing (cited from hllp:llwww.WebpagcsfoI1eachers. 
com/thewritersou rcelconf erenc i ng. ht Ill). 

D. Thtoring 
This is third-person conferencing. In tutoring, the teacher meets 

students in groups of three to ten. It looks like a small group conferencing.1t 
takes place in writing class when students ask their tutor to check or edit 



W. Ardriyati mId S. Murtiningsih, Conlcrcncing: 105 

their papers. Sometimes. in writing class before editing their papers. the 
students can ask former teachers or peers they trust to check their papers. 
In the writing center setting. students bring their papers to tutors to di~cuss. 
Tutors are instructed first to deal with content before they deal with form. 
even though most students will ask questions. then to check their grammar. 
According (0 Harris (1986) tutorial instruction differs from traditional 
classroom learning. In tutoring. it introduces a middle person (tutor) between 
student and teacher. 

E. Collaborative technique 
In collaborative counseling. the teacher works individually with students 

in developing their papers. The students work together to write a previously 
agreed text. They read the text construction and compose on the bom'd in 
front of the class. In class writing. the students can consult each other and 
co-construct texts while the teacher moves around listening to their comments. 
providing feedback. lexical items. the validity of an argument. the order of 
presentation of the information. organizational aspects in writing. and so on. 
The teacher keeps track of their progress and works out u record of most 
frequent questions, doubts and inaccuracies for a future error analysis session. 

F. Text topic or group research 
The writing teacher divides the students into groups. Each student 

has rt!sponsibility fordifferent aspects of the information gathering stage on 
a certain topic. Then they pool their results and work together to plan a text 
that may be collective or individual. Students exchange their first draft of a 
text and point out changes which are needed to help the reader. for example. 
bctlerorganization. paragraphing. sentcncc variety. vocabulary. choices. etc. 
They can aCI as each other's edilors spotting vocabulary rt!petilion. 
grammatical infelicities. spelling mistakes and so on. for tht! purpose of sJlecific 
analysis aspt!cts. Tht! teacher displays on an overhead projector one hy one 
tht! whole class examination of texts produced by the students with names 
removed. (These could also be photocopied). The aspects checked can be 
the adequacy to content. development ideas. text structure, cohesion or 
grammar. 



106 Celt, Volume 5. Number 2. December 2005 ; 99 - 109 

G. Journaling 
In joumaling. teachers and students carry on "written conversation" 

with one another and might continue for any length of time during the course 
(Ommagio 1986:254) Teachers talk with students by responding to theirjoumal 
entries. Some writing teachers ask their students to focus their journal on 
development of essay topics and on writing problems. 

Journaling allows the teacher and student to enter into dialogue. 
Moreover. students can have essential control over what they wish to discuss. 
For example. the teacher can ask the students to make a dialogue journals 
using email. It shows effective interactive between student and teacher. 
For teachers. this technique does not demand as much of their time as 
conferencing does. It has many of the drawbacks of written communication. 
inclUding long lead times question and response. 

Interactive writing becomes communicative and purposeful at the 
same time. since it enables the students to pernmnently challenge their current 
language practices and gain the most from the experience. 

IMPLEMENTATION 
Teaching writing using conferencing techniques can be formal or 

informal and can be conductcd in a special writing task. The teacher of 
writing can use open-ended questions and allow plenty of time for students 
to think before they answer. The purpose is to get them to tcll the teacher 
their thinking. It is important to ask questions that lead the students to discover 
what they have to say and want to communicate: and that encourage them 
to talk about their work. 

The teacher needs to develop a list of questions for her/his first 
conference. which arc open-ended and allow the student to do the questioning 
once the conference begins. While the teacher poses the first questions. she 
Illay ask students tn add questions they may have about the subject she 
tea,hes or asks thelll to give spe,iric answers about why they are feeling 
uncomfortable with the course. For example if you teach American literature. 
the first questions might be: 

J. What is your main purpose or goal for being in the literature 
class? (Mention more than one if you like) 

2. Why are you required to take literature class? 
3. Whal do you expect to take away from this class? 



W. Ardriyati and S. Murtiningsih, Confercncing: 107 

4. As a teacher. what can I do to help you realize your goals for 
this class? 

5. As a student. what can you do to achieve your goals? 
6. Are you willing to do what it takes to realize your goals? 

At first. those questions may not seem like American literature 
questions. but they open the way for students to express their frustration 
with the subject matter, or their excitement of the subject matter. However, 
the teacher should remember that conferencing takes many directions and 
be time consuming. so as the instructor. the teacher must be prepared so that 
he can make use of the time efficiently. 

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CONFERENCING 
TECHNIQUE 

Conferencing techniques have merits for the students who learn 
English. It is one on one conferencing. whether it is student - teacher or third 
pm1y conferencing. The students who have three or more conferences in a 
tenn not only improve their writing ability. but also significantly improve their 
listening and speaking skills (Brender 1993). 

In face-to-face conferencing. teachers can often see whether students 
understand what they arc saying by reading their faces. and can respond 
accordingly. Moreover. teachers can also learn to be more sensitive to their 
students by carefully paying attention not only to what they say but also how 
they say it. This face-to-face conferencing can be used as one of effective 
ways for both of teaching writing and listening. 

Conferencing allows students to ask questions which they may not 
ask in front of the rest of the students. It also allows one-to-one learning that 
increases the student's helief in her/himself. Teachers can listen to what is 
suid: students can listen to wh.\I is said; the teacher has a chance to respond 
to what isn't said. and students h.,,'e a chance to give feedback to the teacher. 
Teaching any subject is a matter of learning to move ahead one- step at a 
time: conferencing helps students see one step at a time. 

Fritts ( 1977) said the conferencing technique significantly showed better 
writing achievement for a group of students who had attended IS-minute 
conferences each week for thirteen weeks as compared to a control group. 

Conferencing involves instructions directly so that the teachers can 
talk and respond to students at all stages of their writing about essential 



108 Celt, Volume 5. Number 2. December 2005 : ')9· 109 

elements of the process rather than the relatively superficial problems. The 
teacher or tutor should be aware of the special needs of the students. One 
problem that often happens in conferencing is that teachers and tutors talk 
down to their students. Other problems in which students are at a disadvantage 
in one-on one discussions include types of questions asked. the length of 
questions, tum-taking, and the proportion of time each speaks per turn, ways 
of negotiating meanings, and ways of wielding power. In this case teachers 
and tutors need to listen to students more attentively and become more adept 
at a certain kind of listening and give a non-judgmental setting where there is 
no punishment for trying out new ideas. 

CONCLUSION 
One way of teaching academic writing is through conferencing. It 

constitutes interaction strategy of teaching writing and can involve discourse 
approach following a task-based framework aiming to encourage classroom 
interaction. To gain a good result of students' academic writing. the students 
must know about the audience and purposes. Good writing can develop the 
symbolic interplay between writer. text and reader. 

To promote interactivity of writing- teacher can implement 
conferencing techniques such as small group conferencing. peerconferencing. 
tutoring. collaborative techniques. text topic and joumaling. Conferencing 
techniques may give advantages for students with some reasons. such as: 

I. Conferencing gives direct feedback to a student. It is a method 
of reducing student frustration and allowing students to improve 
their work before a final assessment of their study. 

2. Conferencing is one of the techniques for teaching writing that 
is not a monologue but a dialogue between the student and the 
teacher. 

3. Conferencing improves class meetings: students hecome 
interactive with techniques lIsed in class and see the teacher a~ 
,Ill individual committed to her/his sllccess. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Brender. A. "An Ethnography of Second Language Student Motivation for Atlending 
Writing Center Tutorial". Paper presented at the First National Writing Center 
Confercnce.NewOrlean.1993. 



W. Ardriyati and S. Murtillillgsih, Conferencing: 1 ()9 

Frills. M. Tht' Effect of!ndil·idlltll Teacher Conferences Oil the Writillg Achiel't'mellt 
and Selj:co/U"'pt of De\'e1upmel/wl Jllllior Colleg(· I\',.ili;/g StIIt/ellts. (ERIC 
Document Reproduction Service No. ED 138988). 1977. 

Harris. M. '{,'achillg One·to·one. 711e lVliting Conference. Urhana 1L: National C9\~~-:"~;, 
Teachers of English. 1986. ££~. '~~ ''f~, 

; ':;',e.~ I : 
Harmer. J. How to Teach Ellglish AI/ !tltrodllctioll to the Practic,' of . ~,,,-l':'~~~J 

umgllll.r:t' Teaching. Harlow. England: Addison Wesley Longman Lt1; l,~~l 
~IlPUSTA",~f.t­

http://www.Wcbpagcsfol.leachers.com/thewritersoun:c/conferencing.htm. retric"c(.1 
ill June 2005. 

ht t p;l/www.darkwing.uol.cgun.edu/clkranclconfcrencingphyl(lsophy.ht m. retricvcd 
in JUlle 2005. 

hllp://wch.ics.purdue.edu/·magitIJkairoselecl/htcoryoutlinc.htl1l rctrieved in June 
2005. 

Marshall. M. Writing without Fear: At/mllced Writil/g/or t\c(/(/('mic .mcass. (ERIC 
Document Reproduction Service No ED 211962). 1986. 

Omuggio. A.C. Tc'"cl/illg Llmguage ill COll1ext. Boston. Massachusetts. USA: Heinle 
& Heinle Publisher Inc. 1986. 

Reid. J.M. Til(' Pmc,'.u o/Composition, 3,,1 edition NY: Addison Wesley Longman. 
Inc. 2000. 

Swales. J. C"'II-eAI/"lysis. English in Academic and Research Settings. C.U.P .. 1990. 

Will is. J. A Fmlllell·ork.!iJr Task-.based Lt·aming. NY: Longman. 1996. 


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