Professional written voice “in flux”
The case of social work
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21196347 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Theresa Lillis (0000-0001-7584-3772, The Open University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 615-641 |
| Publication date | 2023-05-25 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Applied Linguistics Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1868-6303 • E-ISSN: 1868-6311 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/applirev-2021-0055 |
| OpenAlex | W3170434212 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 36 |
Contemporary professional social work can be characterised by increased textualisation (after Iedema and Scheeres 2003) with written texts mediating most action. At the same time, writing, as a key dimension to social workers’ practice and labour, is often institutionally unacknowledged, becoming visible primarily when identified as a “problem.” This paper draws on a three year nationally funded UK-based research project to offer a situated account of contemporary professional social work writing, challenging dominant institutional orientations to writing in professional practice. The paper outlines the specific ways in which social work practices, including writing, can be characterised as being ‘in flux’. Drawing on ethnographic data and adopting a Bakhtinian (1981, 1986) oriented approach to voice , the paper explores the entextualisation of three specific social work texts, focusing in particular on critical moments (after Candlin 1987, 1997). These critical moments offer insights into key problematics of social work writing, in particular the tensions around professional voice and discourse. The paper concludes by arguing for an articulation of professional social work writing which takes account of the dialogic nature of language and the discoursal challenges experienced in everyday practice
Dialogic · Epistemology · Ethnography · Linguistics · Pedagogy · Political science · Situated · Sociology · Computer Science · Homelessness and Social Issues · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Social Work Education and Practice · Social Work
Writing as Social Work
Invisible authors
Developing professional writing in social work education
‘Write Right About Me’
Critical report writing as a link between social work theory, ethics, and practice
Who is the ‘I’? An exploration of social work professional written discourse and implications for social work education
Health Care Communication
Ethnography as Method, Methodology, and “Deep Theorizing”
Discourse and social change
From Doing Work to Talking Work
Time, the Written Record, and Professional Practice
Categorization and explanation of risk
Employee Voice at Work
Textual trajectories
Continuity and change
Recruiting Frontstage Entextualization
Imagined, prescribed and actual text trajectories
The Voice of the Social Worker
The activity does not archive well
When policy o’erleaps itself
Deconstructing motivations
Culture
Poetics and Performances as Critical Perspectives on Language and Social Life
| Citations per year | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |