ABSTRACT
Introduction As English for academic purposes (EAP) has evolved over the past four decades, an emphasis on writing has been one of its key features. This is hardly surprising, given that much of what students are asked to do in academic settings in order to both acquire and display knowledge revolves around some type of writing. What has changed over time has been increased interest in the role of reading as related to writing in line with the fact that, in academic contexts, students are not often asked to write without some kind of stimulus or input, usually in the form of reading materials (i.e. source texts). In short, they are reading for writing (heretofore RFW). Expectations for how they do so may vary across disciplinary community contexts, but the ‘bottom line’ is that it is essential for students to become adept at RFW, because this is ‘an index of successful academic achievement for students’ (Shaw & Pecorari 2013, A1). These circumstances have led to a steady focus on RFW in EAP scholarship since the mid1980s.
