The representations that teachers and students have about writing tasks are a consequence of their own experiences and social expectations. The aim of this paper is to notice how the social representations of the teachers who guide research thesis and students who have elaborated these pieces of writing in two Chilean university programs in the area of social sciences are. Focus group technique was applied to 8 university teachers of the social science area and 6 individual interviews to thesis students. The data was analysed following the principles of Grounded Theory. The results show that writing is a task which defines academic development and determines professional identity. The thesis to obtain a degree is similar to the traits of a professional text of the areas to which students are formed.
Academic writing; thesis; discourse communities; social representations
