Were the reviewer’s detectives? Reflections on writing and revision in text production

Marcos Faria

Abstract

This paper aims to document and reflect on experiments in the practice of the academic writing by engineering students. As a professor of a Federal University located in one of the areas with the lowest HDI of Minas Gerais Federal State, I usually receive students with a high deficit of writing skills, which becomes a barrier to success in their college life. In order to tackle this situation, I ended up using some text revision techniques performed by professionals in the area and the creation of a didactic methodology that I named “floor plan” so that we could ensure that students improve their writing skills in a short period of time. Also, I focus on text education based on academic formats that encourage self-autonomy. In conclusion, regarding didactics, I propose the notion of assisted revision where the student, endowed with a perception of inquiry towards his own writings, is able to resolve inherent problems within the three writing levels: mor- phology, syntax and semantics. This practice has been developed over the last two years with incoming students of Science and Technology of the Federal University of Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valleys (UFVJM) and a private institution.