Student writing is more often about displaying your knowledge than transmitting knowledge (Swales & Feak 1994).

• Very often the person that you are writing for is an expect in the field and will know vastly more about the field than you do.
• Because of this, the student writer has to make judicious judgements about how much background knowledge is appropriate.
• He/she must demonstrate knowledge at that same time as pretend to inform the reader (Kaldor, Herriman & Rochecouste 1996), and
• This requires the correct amount of already known information (background knowledge) and new ideas.