The Writing Consultation: Developing Academic Writing Practices

The Writing Consultation: Developing academic writing practices will ever help to write in a professional manner.

In order to assist academics in setting priorities, rethinking their approaches to writing, and developing their techniques, this article discusses and evaluates a specific process known as the writing consultation. It makes the argument for its ability to prompt discussion of writing strategies and goals, which may be a requirement before scheduling time for writing in academic settings.

The idea put forth in this article is that the procedure for disclosing and improving writing practises in this essay makes the argument that the process of disclosing and developing writing practises in a particular kind of routine, structured collegial conversation may inspire academics to reconsider their writing processes and, perhaps more importantly, to come up with new ways to write.

Additionally, it illustrates how well-known behaviour change tactics may be incorporated into the academic writing process in a novel way. The writing consultation is based on ideas that have been proven in various settings. In order to support and enhance academic writing production, this article argues for their adaptation to the context of academic writing.

The Challenge Of Academic Writing

To increase staff members’ writing for publication, we advise universities to promote the creation of structured interventions. It appears that a consistent, ongoing arrangement is most advantageous. One could argue that all academics with respectable undergraduate and graduate degrees will have honed their writing skills for scholarly publications.

Academic writing is huge challenge especially for students and majority of them need help for solving their assignments or writing tasks.

However, this presumption was contested as early as 1987 when Boice demonstrated that academic writing can be difficult and that trying to increase written output can pose serious issues, even for academics who are experts in their fields. The development of academic writing techniques is not necessarily simple, according to more recent study.

Professionalisation

Additionally, new demands on academics’ time result from changes in the goals, culture, and administration of higher education, including an increase in student enrollment, broader access, increased demand for student support, more accountability and administration, the need to generate revenue, and the “professionalisation” of teaching. Additionally, because many new academics are required to enrol in courses on teaching and learning, they may feel especially burdened. Academics’ time for research and academic writing may be impacted by these changes.

In the context of academic writing, the relationship between particular behaviours and the capacity to prioritise writing time has not been examined. Perhaps there is a presumption that academics will prioritise writing if given additional time, but research shows that this presumption cannot be verified.

The availability of greater writing time does not inevitably mean that academics will prioritise writing and write more effectively. It has been 20 years since Boice’s study offered insights into the behavioural aspect of academic writing, including the significance of a writing schedule, the role of goal-setting and monitoring in academic writing, and the necessity for academics to receive training and support in writing techniques. Since that study, the method by which academics establish productive writing habits and drop unproductive ones has not been thoroughly explained. After two decades and several sectoral changes, it is appropriate to review these problems.

Academic Writing As A Priority

Additionally, the factors that motivate academics to write have not been thoroughly studied, probably because it is expected that the need to publish will suffice given the existing environment. This presumption disregards the challenges academics encounter when trying to prioritise writing.

Since motivation is probably a component in accomplishment, this assumption merits examination despite the paucity of research that can be used to evaluate it, as is the case with many elements of academic writing.

This article explains and evaluates a specific system created to assist academics in setting academic writing as a priority. It makes the argument for its ability to prompt discussion of writing strategies and goals, which may be a requirement before scheduling time for writing in academic settings.

It makes the argument that the process of disclosing and developing writing habits in a particular kind of routine, regulated, collegial debate has the ability to inspire academics to rethink their writing practises and, maybe more importantly, to come up with new ways to write. Additionally, it illustrates how well-known behavior-change tactics may be incorporated into the academic writing process in a novel way.

The writing consultation, the suggested mechanism, is discussed in the section that follows, along with a justification for utilising this strategy in this situation. After that, it is discussed how the writing consultation could encourage a rethinking of academic writing methods in order to overcome the difficulties associated with academic writing. Following a discussion of the potential drawbacks of using this strategy, the article considers its consequences.

The Writing Consultation

Academics may need to critically examine their writing practises in terms of particular behaviors in order to develop practises that prioritise academic writing. One strategy to direct academic writers’ attention to the techniques they employ with the goal of strengthening and improving those practises is to conceptualise academic writing as a set of behaviors.

Since it is unclear from the academic writing literature how academics may adjust their behavior to make time for writing a priority, it may be useful to seek in other places. Models and concepts for behavior change have been developed through research in various fields.

This study has shown that changing behavior needs more than just learning new information. When this theory is applied to academic writing, it suggests that academics who wish to become successful writers require more than, say, simple writing instruction. Individuals must confront the beliefs that underlie their behaviors in order to alter them.

For academic authors, this may entail examining their views regarding, for instance, the goal and significance of publishing. The research reveals that academic writers need assistance and maintenance measures in order for behavior change to be sustained. According to a wealth of recent study, this final and possibly most crucial stage is essential for growing confidence in one’s ability to change.

As people become aware of their capacity for change, self-efficacy grows in them. For academics, greater self-efficacy may result in a better ability to change their writing habits in the future and greater confidence in doing so.

Delineating Processes For Increasing Productivity

By encouraging writers to consider the possibilities of altering their writing behaviors and supporting the planning process for reaching their objectives, writing consultations can assist authors in defining the procedures for enhancing their productivity. The act of considering how crucial writing for them utilizing the decisional balance is the mechanism of this process.

The discursive component of the writing consultation is crucial because it enables them to examine the difficult issue of the worth of writing. By breaking down writing goals into smaller, manageable, incremental writing activities, authors can use the writing consultation to start predicting how their writing goals will be fulfilled.

Productivity may rise as these more manageable objectives are accomplished. If objectives are not fully met, support and more discussion with the peer who serves as the writing consultant are offered. Success in attaining one’s own objectives can boost self-efficacy, which can raise the likelihood of continuing to write.

In turn, this may improve writers’ chances of producing more writing. The two factors most likely to boost productivity are having goals that one sets for one’s own writing and having goals that one values.

Initiating And Fostering Specific Behavior Change

By individualised writing, the writing consultation can support and encourage behavior change in writers. It encourages writers to draw this connection for their own work by directly connecting behavior change to writing. Instead of focusing on an ideal writing process or goal, it employs the writer’s own behavior as the main point of focus. The consultation gives writers the opportunity to identify their own objectives and devise strategies for accomplishing them.

Enhancing Motivation To Write

By causing a change in motivation, the writing consultation can increase writers’ motivation to write. The concentration on the person’s goals, peer support, and the experience of success in reaching goals are the factors causing this effect. The writing consultation can boost motivation to write even more by improving the connection between the writer’s beliefs and ideals. Read more