La lectura y la escritura en la universidad son actividades orientadas a producir y comunicar conocimientos a través de los diversos géneros que circulan dentro de los distintos campos del conocimiento. En tanto involucran prácticas discursivas especializadas, más que esperar su dominio por los estudiantes desde el ingreso al nivel superior, deben entenderse como el resultado de un proceso de aprendizaje, tanto de conceptos como de las formas en que los mismos se construyen a través del discurso. En este estudio interesa analizar las actividades de escritura que proponen los docentes en el ámbito de las ciencias sociales en la universidad y determinar si promueven procesos cognitivos profundos y complejos para potenciar el aprendizaje de los contenidos, por un lado, y si posibilitan la apropiación de las estrategias de producción de textos, por otro. Los resultados preliminares parecen señalar el predominio de tareas de escritura estrechamente vinculadas a las actividades académicas, tendientes a promover la adquisición de contenidos conceptuales, con escasa presencia de géneros propios del campo de actuación profesional o científico para los que se prepara el estudiante. Palabras clave Escritura Enseñanza Aprendizaje Universidad ABSTRACT ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE WRITING TASK IN CAREERS ORIENTED TO THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: HOMOGENEITY AND DIFFERENCES Reading and writing at University level are activities aimed at producing and communicating knowledge through the different genres that belong to the different areas of knowledge. In so far as they involve specialized discursive practices, more than expecting that students should master them from the initial stages of their development as university students, they should be viewed as the long-term result of a learning process; as much in the concepts to be transmitted as in the linguistic forms in which they are constructed through discourse. It is the main aim of this study to analyze the writing tasks and activities proposed by teachers at University in the field of the social sciences, to determine whether such tasks promote deep as well as complex cognitive processes that would lead to effective learning of specific contents; on the one hand, and whether such tasks allow students to develop and effectively incorporate suitable strategies for text production, on the other. Our preliminary results seem to indicate the predominance of writing tasks and assignments that are closely connected with academic activities which tend to promote the acquisition of conceptual knowledge with scarce presence of the genres that typify the scientific or professional profiles for which students should be prepared. Key words Writing Teaching Learning University