The project examines how academics' writing practices and professional identities are influenced by changing workplace conditions in UK universities. Interviews are conducted with academics across disciplines and university types to understand their diverse writing activities. Preliminary findings suggest disciplinary identity provides autonomy but is threatened by managerialism. It also requires public engagement, though this expands identities. Constant elements include note-taking styles. Digital networks enable new collaborations and identities while publication pressures pull in different directions.

1. The Dynamics of Knowledge Creation project team:
Presenter: Ibrar Bhatt (@ibrar_bhatt)
Sharon McCulloch, Karin Tusting, David Barton, Mary Hamilton.
Literacy Research Centre, Lancaster University
Departments of Linguistics and of Educational Research
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/acadswriting
The changing writing practices of
academics and how they influence
professional identity

2. Research aims
• Uncovering the writing practices academics engage
in to create and communicate knowledge
– Many different kinds of writing > Interested in all
types of writing, not just scholarly
– Carried out in particular working conditions > How
changing context and conditions of academic
workplace in the UK are shaping processes of
knowledge creation

3. Research design 1
• To enable comparisons across disciplines and across
types of university
Maths Marketing History
University A: research-
intensive, non-Russell group
UniA-Maths UniA-Marketing UniA-History
University B:
post-1992 university
UniB-Maths UniB-Marketing UniB-History
University C:
Russell group
UniC-Maths UniC-Marketing UniC-History
• Plus pilot work in our own disciplines, and auto-ethnographic work
Issue: defining types of Universities
• Plate glass, redbrick, post-1992
• Boliver’s (2015) conception of 3 clusters

4. Research design 2
• Adopting a social practice approach to literacy and a
sociomaterial perspective
• To understand academics’ writing practices in detail,
we conceive them as literacy practices (Barton 2007)
– their contexts: institution, discipline
– their life histories
– experiences and perspectives
– analysing the materiality of tools and resources

5. The changing nature of academia
• Scholarly writing: Creativity, autonomy &
purpose, metrics
• Teaching related writing: (TEF, NSS)
• Managerialism (REF, ‘impact’) & audit culture
(Strathern 2000)
• Other transformations: Changing spaces of
work (Temple 2007); digitisation (Goodfellow
& Lea 2013)
= forcing newer writing in uncharted forums

6. Building on previous research
• Much work in the field of academic writing focuses on students’
learning (e.g. Lillis & Scott 2008)
• The linguistic aspects of academic genres (e.g. Myers 1990)
• Academics’ writing as a workplace practice (e.g. Lea & Stierer
2009, 2011)
• Writing and departmental culture (Swales 1998)
• Academic disciplinary practices (Becher & Trowler 2001)
• The work of knowledge production (Latour 1986)
• The morphing professional role of academics (Macfarlane 2011)
• The impact of impact (Knowles and Burrows 2014)

7. Our findings so far (1):
writing and autonomy
The disciplinary identity may demand and /or nurture a certain autonomy
What I most enjoy is a sense of freedom to do what I want, the autonomy that
comes from determining my own research interests, trying to bring that
research into my teaching. I suppose it's a combination of feeling that I can
determine my own research direction and also try and enthuse students about
the things that interest me. That's what I most enjoy about the job.
(Colin, History at Uni C)
I am senior lecturer in the Business School … but on my business cards I
actually have ‘senior lecturer and researcher in business’
(James, Marketing at Uni B)

8. Managerial directives may threaten this autonomy, with
competing demands on time, space and attention.
The most important seminar for a historian is the special subject,
and we used to have control of those in our offices ...I wouldn't
do any writing on campus. Any serious writing for research, I
would basically do at home in my study.
(Rebecca, History at Uni A)
[Regarding the REF] It’s changed what’s being researched, how
it’s being presented and where it goes, in a smaller and smaller
and narrower minded community.
(Diane, Marketing at Uni A)

9. Our findings so far (2):
writing, identity and engaging
The disciplinary identity may require engagement with wider publics
It’s an accountability thing, if you’re paid through public money than I think
part of the duty is then to try to engage with the public about what the
money is used for. (Robert, Maths at Uni C)
Until 10 or 15 years ago, it was seen as wasting your time. I think more and
more the university has become aware that they have a responsibility
beyond academia and to communicate and so on. It's not exactly something
that you would encourage a starting lecturer to do because there are just too
many things and you've got to establish yourself in various ways. Once
you've reached a certain age, it's not a bad thing to be thinking about
explaining maths. Also trying to get the next generation of mathematicians
engaged and interested.
(Robert, Maths Uni C)

10. This engagement may expand the disciplinary identity
I was quite excited because there was a conversation with Owen
Jones…he’s written a book about chavs. He said, “Aspiration is
the language of New Labour and social exclusion. Read Don
Robinson’s brilliant book on the underclass”. It was quite a
provocative, controversial point to make and was re-tweeted
quite extensively. It’s made me more visible among academics
and not so much historians but sociologists.
(Don, History at Uni A)

11. The disciplinary identity is constant
I always do have, essentially in my pocket or somewhere, something I
can scribble something down on… if I get an idea … I’ll try to start
working it out on the spot. It doesn’t leave my head, so when I get to
sit down at a desk or somewhere I’ll probably try to sketch it out if it’s
still surviving. It’s all very ad hoc. It’s just a piece of A4 paper folded up
into bits typically in my pocket.
(Will, Maths at Uni C)
I'm a marketer ... I had a career in marketing before I came into
academia. Yes, sometimes I forget that I'm supposed to be an
academic, and in my lectures I will start talking about what it’s like in
the real world. I have to be a bit careful of that.
(Emma, Marketing at Uni C)

12. Summary
• Digitally networked collaborations enable
disciplinary movements & newer identity
formations
• Pressures to publish in a narrow range of high-
ranking journals contrast with pressures to
publish beyond one’s own discipline (or new
forums e.g. The Conversation) = new genres
• ….

13. More information
• Phase 2, detailed observations of writing
practices recorded in real-time using screen
grab + LiveScribe recordings
• To follow the project’s progress:
– http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/acadswriting/