Femke Kramer

Creating a Basis for a Faculty-Oriented Writing Programme

This article discusses the main features of a writing project at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. We describe and discuss the way the project gradually developed, the problems we encountered and the ways in which we adapted our initial goals to the changing circumstances. In conclusion, we provide some recommendations for the development of a teacher-oriented writing programme within the setting of a European academic institution. The basic idea behind these recommendations is that educational renewals need a time-consuming, bottom-up approach, because they aim to change attitudes and raise consciousness among faculty members and administrators.

Apollo, Apollo! An Ambiguous Call for Sophistication in Antwerp, 1561

This article explores the seemingly mixed messages in the Antwerp playwright Willem van Haecht’s Oordeel van Tmolus (Tmolus’ Verdict), based on Ovid’s tale of the metamorphosis of King Midas’ ears. Performed on the first evening of the 1561 Rederijkers’ theater competition in Antwerp, its first act reflects a call for ‘apollonian’ aesthetics and a rejection of the genre of farce. The second act, however, seems to undermine this artistic stance. As this article clarifies, Van Haecht’s dramatization of the aftermath of the metamorphosis, in which a barber discovers Midas’ ears, testifies to the playwright’s skillful mastery of ‘dionysian’ farce techniques.

Moeilijker, langer, serieuzer: Reflecties van eerstejaarsstudenten over schrijven in een academische setting

This study explores assumptions and expectations expressed by novice university students about writing in an academic setting. Knowledge of these notions and beliefs among students at the transition of secondary to higher education may help university teachers to design learning activities that enable academic newcomers to distance themselves from naive or biased renditions of texts and writing, and to come to grips with the intricacies of the discourse practices in their new environment. The data are drawn from a corpus of meta-writing assignments performed by 118 students in their first year at university during the first week of a freshman course in academic communication skills. Our findings confirm and substantiate the presumption that, when expressing their thoughts about writing in an academic setting, novices predominantly convey issues related to ‘surface features’ (e.g. text length) or broad, general characteristics that are not specific for writing in an academic context. When considering ‘deep features’, some novices emphasize their unfamiliarity with, or even anxiety about writing practices in their new environment. A minority articulates quite realistic notions about the instrumentality of texts in academic communities.