Introduction
Though few faculty members identify as writers, academics write as part of their careers in almost every college and university institution. In this study, we analyze this contradiction and its consequences. We outline the possibilities and potential that result from more fully embracing our identity as writers.
We are two sociologists who publish for both academic and mainstream audiences, joyfully embracing our identities as writers. We’ve devoted many hours to leading seminars on writing enhancement, overcoming writer’s block, making progress, and prioritizing writing despite a demanding teaching schedule.
Role of Institution
Regretfully, the majority of graduate programs’ curricula almost entirely center on helping students acquire substantial knowledge in their areas of specialization and expand it through research. Still, very few professors dedicate all or even most of their time to research. We write about our research when we finish teaching. A fortunate few of us possess some pedagogical training. However, the majority of us never received any formal training in writing academic articles, book chapters, or monographs. It is extremely uncommon for graduate programs to offer instruction on how to write in a way that is both convincing and effective for a broad readership.
Improper Training
Many of us fear identifying as writers due to a lack of writing training and mentoring towards a writer’s life. How can such an important part of our academic careers be treated with so little respect? If we are not writers, how can we write correctly? If we are not writers, how can we develop confidence in the work that we produce? Our procrastination hinders our ability to translate significant work for a wider audience and frequently stymies our careers.
Importance of Collaboration and Professionalism in Academic Writing
Places a focus on collaboration. We communicate with one another, have calm, straightforward discussions—at least to us—and reach some sort of agreement. Students also take academic writing help online to make their assignments with proper writing style.
Necessitates a professional to attentively, thoroughly, and broadly consider a particular topic
Researchers thoroughly examine this in a field, and readers widely read it. Peer review guarantees that relevant parties carefully examine and widely accept scholarly articles after publication. This implies that, even if we reach a consensus, it will usually only last temporarily. In other words, it could always alter in light of fresh facts.
Academic writing honed our minds in all these domains. We gain the ability to communicate clearly and succinctly (pieces frequently have very low word counts). To avoid coming across as foolish to our peers, we learn to double-check our facts, the reliability of our sources, and our logical reasoning.
Good Writing Helps in Publications
Academic writers absorb the maxim that, as they say, “publish or perish.” This is a message that discourages writing with joy—it fosters fear, hatred, and pressure in addition to concentrating on a practical means to an end. It seems as though the only thing that counts for a committee to determine whether there are sufficient publications in a file to guarantee our jobs is the publication’s outcome. If you publish frequently enough, you’ll get tenure and a stable position.
What if we gave serious thought to the joy of writing, rather than coercing faculty members into publishing rather than dying? In today’s cutthroat academic marketplace, academics typically perceive publishing as a means of overcoming numerous obstacles to secure or retain employment. Yet, concentrating on quality writing benefits us more and is significantly more efficient. Better writing will result from it, and more publications as a bonus. Writing-focused thinking enables us to maintain perspective on the big picture and the initial motivation behind our writing and, consequently, publishing.
Why is Conciseness Important while Writing Academic Texts?
For most academics who could be interested in reading your book, time is the most valuable resource. They can’t read long texts since they are pushed for time. Use as few words as possible to explain your conclusions, your reasoning for coming to them, and the reasons why you think the interpretation is sound. You should provide enough information so that someone can reproduce your results. However, you’re not penning a book. Flowery prose or unnecessary content piques no one’s interest. Concise papers are simpler to publish and evaluate.
What Significance Does the Academic Writing Style Have?
Writing in an academic style is crucial when you need to convey information truthfully and impartially. When it comes to correctness, academic writing backs up all of its claims with data and findings from reliable sources. Academic writing usually goes through a rigorous peer review process before it is considered reliable. This is not the same as other writing genres, like creative writing, where facts aren’t always important and the text isn’t always carefully examined.
Furthermore, objectively disseminating correct information requires writing in an academic style. If bias is minimized and information is presented impartially, audiences will be able to trust what they are reading. Again, this is often not the case for a wide variety of writing genres. For example, biased opinions about a subject are often featured in news stories and blogs; readers cannot always trust what they read to be true.