Academic writing: contested knowledge in the making?
| Pages | 104-117 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880910951345 |
| Date | 24 April 2009 |
| Published date | 24 April 2009 |
| Author | Graham Badley |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Academic writing: contested
knowledge in the making?
Graham Badley
Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, UK
Abstract
Purpose – This paper seeks to consider whether academic writing should be regarded as knowledge
in the making and why all such writing should be continuously challenged.
Design/methodology/approach – The approach is that of a reflective discussion which considers
academic writing in context, knowledge, reflectiveness and helping others to contest academic writing.
Findings – The paper concludes with the view that all academic writing and concept-mongering are
properly open to rigorous challenge.
Research limitations/implications – The paper is limited by its presentation of one writer’s
stance or point of view. Some may also consider this a strength.
Practical implications – Academic developers and those interested in helping train academic
writers especially, but not exclusively, at the postgraduate level should find the ideas presented
useful sources for further conversations.
Originality/value – The main value of the paper is that it summarizes a view of academic writing
not as objective or neutral but as personal stance and counter-stance.
Keywords Research, Academicstaff, Knowledge creation
Paper type Conceptual paper
Glossary
CDA Critical discourse analysis maintains that texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by
relations of power and struggles over power. The way writers use language is influenced
by their interests, values and power relations in the particular institutional and social
contexts in which they function.
DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid – the hereditary material in humans and other organisms.
RAE The Research Assessment Exercise was a peer assessment of the originality, rigour and
significance of academic research outputs in the UK. The RAE was last conducted in 2008
and is to be replaced by the REF or Research Excellence Framework which will mainly use
databases to judge the quality of academic’s work.
UK The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Introduction
There are at least two main questions embedded in the title of this paper. One question
asks whether academic writing can or should be conceived of as knowledge in the
making. A second problem concerns the contestedness or otherwise of academic
writing as a genre or rather as a set of genres. The first question leads into a discussion
of academic writing as a way of constructing or creating knowledge, indeed as a form
of researching in itself. The second problem requires a consideration of why academic
writing is or should be continuously challenged. These two problems are also
connected to our human reflectiveness through which we seek and seize opportunities
to inquire into and critique current knowledge and understanding as well as our
aims and purposes (Dennett, 2007, p. 175). I look at these two questions and some
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0968-4883.htm
QAE
17,2
104
Quality Assurance in Education
Vol. 17 No. 2, 2009
pp. 104-117
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0968-4883
DOI 10.1108/09684880910951345
To continue reading
Request your trial