The construction of the discursive ethos and future professional writers’ relationship to writing
This study discusses an action research project on the didactics of professional writing in the context of a master’s degree program at Aix-Marseille University. Specifically, it examines an instructional system that aims to develop professional scriptural competencies by addressing students’ relationship to writing via the production of journalistic book reviews. The text looks at the subject-writers in terms of their construction of an ethos, i.e., a self-representation, within the texts produced. A longitudinal study of a cohort of 12 students reveals specific developmental profiles in the construction of this ethos, and a case study illustrates and sheds light on the overall findings.