Exploring six MBA students’ summary writing by introspection

The study highlights the role of students’ previous writing expertise in learning disciplinary writing, the complexity of a course-related assignment in terms of its unclear and inexplicit expectations perceived by students, and the need to identify key strategies for good summary writing across and within disciplines.

Abstract

The present study explored the summary writing processes of six first-year MBA (Master of Business Administration) students in a North American university. The participants, three Chinese who speak English as a Second Language (ESL) and three native-English-speaking (NES), each completed a course-related summary task while thinking aloud. The analyses of the think-aloud protocols, retrospective interviews, and written drafts reveal similarities and differences in the writing processes of the participants. Depending on their perceptions of the nature of the writing task, business employment background or related writing experiences, the participants either wrote confidently or struggled through the writing processes, relying to varied degrees on such strategies as verbalizing what is being written, planning content, referring to the sources, reading what has been written, reviewing and modifying one's writing, and commenting on the source texts. The study highlights the role of students' previous writing expertise in learning disciplinary writing, the complexity of a course-related assignment in terms of its unclear and inexplicit expectations perceived by students, and the need to identify key strategies for good summary writing across and within disciplines.