How ‘academic’ should academic writing be? Or

Why Form Should Follow Function

Bibliographic Data

ID7215249
AuthorsGert Biesta (0000-0001-8530-7105, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author), Keita Takayama (0000-0002-9888-0047, University of South Australia), Margaret Kettle (0000-0002-4060-4226, Central Queensland University), Stephen Heiman (0000-0002-4573-9461, The University of Queensland)
Year2024
Volume52
Issue2
Pages121-125
Publication date2024-03-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-866X • E-ISSN: 1469-2945
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1359866x.2024.2324582
OpenAlexW4392986348
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited10

How 'academic' should academic writing be? Or: why form should follow functionThe writing of this editorial was prompted by a recent experience one of us had at an academic conference in New Zealand.At the conference, a group of doctoral students had organised a session in which they discussed their experiences with the world of academia, particular with regard to writing and, more specifically, with so-called academic writing and academic publishing.In their presentations they provided highly perceptive and also highly critical analyses of the world of academic publishing and the way in which this world had been presented to them.One thing they showed -and raised concerns about -was how academic publishing is very much skewed towards the English language, which makes anything that is written in another language automatically marginal and of little significance.The other thing they showed was how the rules of academic publishing had been presented to them as a strict, non-negotiable and highly uniform "regime."In this regime, so they recounted, there are apparently very explicit rules about the proper structure of an academic paper, about the length and content of individual paragraphs, and about the writing style, particularly the importance of using a passive and dispassionate voice.They found the encounter with this regime frustrating and limiting for their own formation as scholars.They also expressed concerns about the way in which the regime works as a filter through which some voices are heard while others a reduced to and can only exist as "noise" (on the distinction between "speech" and "noise" see Rancire, 2004).The session reminded us of a story written by Franz Kafka called "Before the Law," first published in 1915 in German as "Vor dem Gesetz."The story is about a man who seeks "the law" and wishes to gain entry to it.There is, however, a doorkeeper at the doorway to the law who tells the man that he cannot go through at the present time.When the man asks whether he can ever go through, the doorkeeper says that it may be possible, but not yet now.The man waits at the door for years, even bribing the doorkeeper with everything he has.And while the doorkeeper accepts the bribes, he tells the man that he only does so "so that you do not think that you have left anything undone."The man continues to wait until he is about to die.Right before his death, he asks the doorkeeper why, even though everyone seeks the law, no one else has come during the years he has been there.The doorkeeper answers "This gate was made only for you and I am now going to shut it."Kafka's story seems to capture the experience of the students quite well in that they encountered the rules of academic publishing as a non-negotiable law that prevents them from entering the world of academic publishing on their own terms.Moreover, they encountered a strict gatekeeping of this regime, which means that the only way one can enter the realm of academic publishing is by passing the

Academic writing · Biology · Function (biology · Mathematics education · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Psychology · scientometrics and bibliometrics research

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access