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Martínez Lirola, M. (2021). A proposal to improve narrative texts at the University using Genre Theory. Revista Guillermo De Ockham, 16(1), 21–27. https://doi.org/10.21500/22563202.3579 (Original work published June 13, 2018)
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Abstract

Academic writing is an essential skill that language students need to develop at tertiary education. This article intends to be a contribution to teaching academic writing having Genre Theory as a framework so that students are able to use different texts depending on their communicative end. Students were asked to write a narrative at the end of the semester. This article shows the main difficulties students have to write this text type in a language subject at tertiary education and the main aspects they do well following the characteristics of the genre. The analysis shows that students have difficulties with the use of transitions, verb tenses and lexical cohesion. We intend to highlight that making explicit the formal and structural characteristics of the genres contributes to facilitate that students are able to see a clear connection between the characteristics of a particular text type, in this case narrative, and its function in context.

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