Textography as a Strategy for Investigation: Writing in Higher Education and in the Professions

Abstract

This paper presents textography as a research strategy in writing research that enables texts and their surrounding contexts, practices and the relationships between these to be examined in detail. In order to illustrate the potential of textography, the paper explores how textography could be used to examine the relationships between writing in higher education and writing in the workplace. The paper argues that the time is ripe for the investigation of study-workplace connections for writing in plurilingual settings, such as in Nordic contexts.

Not All Who Want To, Can--Not All Who Can, Will: Extending Notions of Unconventional Doctoral Dissertations

“…Starfield (2014) et al andothers (e.g., Lillis, 2008) have recommended researchers "not only produce descriptions of academic texts, but also explanations" of them so that we know what a text is like as well as why (p. 114, italics in original). Textography, as a research strategy, is particularly well-suited to these tasks (Swales, /2016Paltridge & Stevenson, 2017).…”

“…Textographic approaches to research focus on building arguments through the close analysis of written texts in order to gain insight into the "how" and "why" of a text (Paltridge et al, 2012;. Combining the analysis of textual data with the analysis of contextual data benefits textographic researchers immensely, allowing them to reach a broadened explanation of the textual practices surrounding the production and reception of knowledge (Paltridge & Stevenson, 2017;Starfield et al, 2014;Swales, /2016. For instance, surveys might be conducted to draw out stakeholders' perceptions of writing and identify samples of text for analysis.…”