Experts students and writing: complex relationship

Writing is a basic and key skill in academic context too, as shown numerous studies and operational researches in the European and international research settings. As is obvious, academic writing can be used in different situations: written examination, academic defence, tests; written entrance examinations and so on. These texts have specific features linked to text typology and to students’ degree. So the question is: what expert students think about their writing skills? And, generally, what is the relationship between these students and academic writing? To search for answers, we have analyzed the entrance writing test of students of specialist (second level) degree courses in "Education and Training Science", "Sapienza" University of Rome, from academic year 2011/2012 to 2014/2015. In academic year 2015/2016. we have interviewed these students. Our initial hypothesis was that expert students have important experiences of academic writing and therefore they have increased the awareness on Writing. The first results suggest that complex relationships exist between students and writin