Academics’ understandings of the authorial academic writer: a qualitative analysis of authorial identity

Abstract

Research on authorial identity has focused almost exclusively on the attitudes and beliefs of students. This paper explores how academics understand authorial identity in higher education. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 professional academics and analysed using thematic analysis, identifying themes at two levels. At the semantic level was a main theme called ‘the authorial writer’, with five subthemes: ‘authorial confidence’, ‘valuing writing’, ‘ownership and attachment’, ‘authorial thinking’, and ‘authorial goals’. At the latent level were two integrative themes: ‘tacit learning’ and ‘negotiating identities’. The semantic subthemes represent attributes that could be targets for pedagogic interventions. The integrative themes suggest processes in the development of authorial identity, which can inform more effective teaching. By identifying attributes and processes associated with authorial identity, these findings help towards a psychological understanding of authorial identity, informing development of more effective pedagogy to help students improve their academic writing and avoid plagiarism

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“…There were complex interactions and struggles between teachers and students, and students and their peers, which of course were reflected in the student writing (Cheung et al, 2016;Hyland, 2002;Lancaster, 2016). However, the dichotomization serves to illustrate a valuable finding: university EFL writing teachers' need to reconsider expectations that EFL students can quickly learn to write in an objective discoursal self.…”

“…Much of the research targeting authorial identity has targeted students' beliefs about the authorial self, but it is valuable to note that more recent research has questioned the ways in which academics view it (Cheung et al, 2016), drawing attention to the ways authorial identity may be encouraged in academic writing in higher education. This study builds on this thinking while maintaining a focus on students' perspectives.…”

“…Students instructed to be objective in their writing did so only to the extent that discussing the argument allowed them to. When it came to developing the thesis, the voice of the writer was clearly authorial (Hyland, 2002;Cheung, et al, 2016). …”

“…The understanding of the use of an authorial self in higher education is one of negotiation (Cheung, et al, 2016), where student writers are most notably "playing the game" (Casanave, 2002). In this study, the use of the authorial self in the students' writing was most apparent in the utilization of personal pronouns such as we and you.…”

Using A Weblog-Oriented Program for Promoting English Majors' Academic Writing and Authorial Identity

“…Concerning the aspect of authorial identity, results of previous studies referred to the cultural differences among various countries (English vs. Spanish vs. Chinese) (Hyland, 2002), the unequal power relationship between novices and experts (thesis writers vs. examiners) (Wu & Zhu, 2015 and Jarkas & Fakhreddine, 2017), a lack of assertiveness on the part of the writers, and unwillingness to assume responsibility for their claims (Eldaba , 2018; Hryniuk , 2018‫اليفص‬ ‫ّعله‬ ‫الرتبٔة‬ ‫يف‬ ‫البرث‬ ‫دللة‬ ‫الرتبٔة‬ ‫كلٔة‬ -‫املئا‬ ‫جامعة‬ ‫التعلٔه‬ ‫جْدة‬ ‫لضناٌ‬ ‫القْمٔة‬ ‫اهلٔئة‬ ‫مً‬ ‫ُعتندة‬ ‫م‬ ‫كلٔة‬ 532 ‫املئا‬ ‫جامعة‬ ‫الرتبٔة‬ ‫كلٔة‬ ‫تصدرٍا‬ -‫الثاىى‬ ‫العدد‬ ‫ّالثالثٌْ/‬ ‫الزابع‬ ‫اجمللد‬ -‫د‬ 1 ‫ابزٓل‬ 2019 ‫و‬ http://ms.minia.edu.eg/edu/journal.aspx gamel_abdo59@yahoo.com and Yang, 2018)as the reasons for either the downplay of or sustaining authorial identity among L2 writers(Muñoz, 2013 andYang, 2018). Other studies emphasized that sharing one's writing can be used as a means to further examine the writer's identity(Rankin- Brown & Fitzpatrick,2007) and that reducing unintentional plagiarism can be done through improving students' authorial identity(Pittam et al 2009).Moreover, there has been great emphasis in the previously conducted studies that explicit instruction in academic writing conventions is highly important in promoting the development of writers' authorial identity(Burke, 2011;Janks, 2012;Cheung, et al, 2016 ; Ghufron et al, 2016;Jarkas & Fakhreddine, 2017; Hryniuk, 2018 ;Listyani, 2018 and Inouye & McAlpine, 2019).…”