Adopting academic values: Student use of that-complement clauses in academic writing

•Student writers use reporting verbs that are frequent in conversational language.•Student writers draw on non-academic sources of evidence such as common knowledge.•Students' use of that-clauses showed some adoption of academic language and values.

Because of their use in reporting the claims of self and others, packaging information as fact, and allowing writers to express evaluative stance, that-complement clauses allow writers to distance themselves from their subject matter and project an objective persona. This study's contribution is a focus on that-clauses in the student report genre. Wide use of student reports based on quantitative data, and structural similarities of these reports with research articles based on quantitative data, make this genre important in socialising student writers into academic language and values in certain disciplines. A corpus approach is used to compare that-clauses in ESL student reports and research articles. Although focused on one disciplinary area, it provides insights applicable to writing on quantitative data. It shows how students' language choices reflect conversational norms, as well as indicating the beginnings of sharing academic values about objectivity and evidence. Student writers used a restricted range of reporting words. Their writing also drew on non-academic sources of evidence, such as common knowledge and community beliefs. The study provides evidence that writers have acquired some elements of academic language and values. The article makes suggestions for writing pedagogy.