Writing by academics: a transactional and systems approach to academic writing behaviours

Abstract

The literature on academic writing in higher education contains a wealth of research and theory on students' writing, but much less on academics' writing. In performative higher education cultures, discussions of academics' writing mainly concern outputs, rather than the process of producing them. This key component of academic work remains under-theorized, and the exact nature of the challenge of academic writing is understated at best and misunderstood at worst. This paper offers a new approach to academic writing, based on a transactional and a systems model, which aims to understand academic writing practices. This paper offers a new explanation of the challenge of academic writing, defining factors that enable and inhibit academics' writing. ARTICLE HISTORY

Xenolexia's positivity: the alterity of academic writing and its pedagogical implications

“…Many of the comments I have made so far will not strike practitioners as new. Those who call for process-oriented pedagogies already recognise the complexity of academic writing and learning more generally (Engeström and Sannino 2012;Kempenaar and Murray 2016;Beighton 2017b). Their recommendations imply familiar pedagogical techniques such as process writing, task-based learning and problem-based pedagogies (see for example Beighton 2015; see also Barell 2006;Willis 1996;White 1991 inter alia).…”

Analysis of writing programmes for academics: application of a transactional and systems approach

“…While interventions are available, evidence of their effectiveness to create sustained changes in writing practices and/or writing cultures is limited and what evidence there is frequently lacks underpinning theory or conceptual frameworks. Kempenaar and Murray (2016) presented a transactional and systems model for making sense of the writing behaviours of academics. This approach is based on a behavioural process model (Van Egeren 2000) integrated with a transactional model of stress (Lazarus and Folkman 1984) and is situated in a systems model, based on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory (1979).…”

“…In turn they believe that achievement of these writing goals, i.e. publications, will benefit them personally in some way (profit belief), such as a personal sense of achievement, professional status or career progression (see Kempenaar and Murray 2016 for more examples of how this applies to academic writing).…”

“…The academic must have sufficient beliefs in each of these domains to move into action. The authors argue that this process of appraisal of writing does not take place in isolation (Kempenaar and Murray 2016). They argue that it involves a process of appraisal of a particular person-environment relationship.…”

“…On the other hand, many programmes which support academics to write only address the individual's skills and attitudes. Kempenaar and Murray (2016) propose that when attempting to get a better understanding of academics' writing behaviours (or the absence of them), it is important to consider both the system in which the academic is embedded and the individual's beliefs regarding their writing behaviours, in order to develop ways to support and develop academics to change their writing behaviours. The relationship between these two approaches; however, is not linear, but intrinsically complicated.…”