@article{28696,
  abstract     = {{The aim of the present study is to bring new momentum into research on students’
understanding of academic writing. Drawing on the idea that metaphors give insight into
implicit conceptions of abstract entities and processes, we developed a detailed and
differentiated set of conceptual metaphors that can be used to study student ideas about
writing in research, teaching, and interventions. A large sample of undergraduates produced
their everyday understanding of writing in short texts beginning with a self-generated
metaphor. Based on theories from cognitive linguistics, the conceptual metaphors in their
texts were analyzed in terms of their action quality (transitivity) and spatiality (spatial
primitives). The undergraduates’ conceptualizations were very heterogeneous. Most
metaphors depart strongly from scientific approaches to academic writing within cognitive
psychology and sociocultural theory. Roughly half of the metaphors could be collated to one
of four metaphor systems. Depending on the desired degree of abstraction or concreteness,
conceptual metaphors or metaphor systems can be employed in further studies to illuminate
thinking about writing.}},
  author       = {{Scharlau, Ingrid and Karsten, Andrea and Rohlfing, Katharina}},
  issn         = {{2030-1006}},
  journal      = {{Journal of Writing Research}},
  keywords     = {{metaphor analysis, academic writing, transitivity, spatial primitives}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{493--529}},
  title        = {{{Building, emptying out, or dreaming? Action structures and space in undergraduates’ metaphors of academic writing}}},
  doi          = {{10.17239/jowr-2021.12.03.01}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}