The purpose of the study described in this article was to analyze the pedagogical supports that have medical students to construct knowledge from information that has to be read in different texts in different formats. It was a qualitative case study of correlation type research / prospective. The participants were 100 of 350 students from new entrants to medicine at the University of Tabasco, Mexico, for the school year that began in the last week of August, 2011. The analysis categories were a) indications and support they received of teachers for the preparation of briefs, b) the practices of the students to make their writings and c) motivations that students had to develop them. The instructions of teachers were predominantly about format (extension, font). Students valued academic writing and considered it necessary to learn and to develop informed opinions, but most teachers rated the writings based on spelling and grammar. It is necessary to have online and presence feedback for the achievement of the literacity competence

Alphabetization; Medical Education; Management of the knowledge; Written Language; Text production; Mexico