The main source of data for this study was essays written in the DET about two weeks before the semester started (time 1) and in week 11 (time 2). Two levels of analysis were conducted, holistic and analytic. The holistic analysis was mainly based on the bands the participating students obtained at time 1 and time 2. This level of analysis aims mainly to ascertain whether students’ academic writing competence has improved purely in numerical terms. The second level of analysis was a detailed linguistic analysis of students’ scripts, with a special focus on fluency, accuracy, academic vocabulary use, and.
