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

[Extract] This chapter focuses on international postgraduate students in the Australian higher education context and their transition to writing success in formal assessment tasks. International higher education offers students opportunities to broaden their horizons and to develop new knowledge about cultures, languages and discipline 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 generalised terms achieving wider application and relevance. For these reasons, written texts have long been associated with the presentation and dissemination of scientific knowledge