Editorial: The role of the student experience in shaping academic writing development in higher education

This issue of the Journal of Academic Writing contains selected, peer-reviewed articles based on presentations given at the EATAW 2011 conference. The conference, held on 29th June 2011 at the University of Limerick, Ireland, and hosted by the Regional Writing Centre at the University of Limerick, took as its focus the role of the student experience in shaping academic writing development in higher education. The EATAW 2011 conference brought together 280 participants to contribute to discussion of how to enhance the student experience through writing development. Conference delegates included writing teachers and researchers, writing centre and writing programme administrators, staff developers, and professional and peer writing tutors. A focal point of the conference was a keynote panel featuring peer tutors in writing from three universities. A reflection on this keynote, along with narratives written by peer writing tutors working in universities in Europe, is included in the new ‘Dialogues’ section of this issue.