Novice Writers and Scholarly Publication by Pejman Habibie & Ken Hyland

Author:Pejman Habibie & Ken Hyland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783319953335
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Parting Thoughts

I have no idea how typical the views expressed in this chapter are among other experienced scholars who write for publication. I can only hope that I am not discouraging less experienced L1 and L2 scholars from their writing efforts, and am instead inspiring them to seek challenges throughout their careers that push them beyond their current limits. Without the ongoing challenges, assuming they are within our reach, our scholarly lives can becoming dreadfully boring (see Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, on the flow experience that comes from challenge and the boredom that results from its absence).

I also hope I have dispelled what I believe to be myths, including the myth that good writers are native speakers of the language they write in or that some are born with innate talent at writing. There is too much individual variability in performances of any kind for such a generalization to be made (Ackerman, 2014). We may also be misguided in assuming, or hoping, that writing for publication automatically gets easier over time, or that it should get easier with time and experience. Clearly, some aspects do get easier, but it is likely that these aspects are ones that have to do with routinized knowledge and practices, not with deeper (dare I say, more important, and certainly more interesting) aspects of writing (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987). Writing practices that have become routinized, ones that no longer challenge us, are certainly important, because as Bereiter and Scardamalia (1993, p. 111) pointed out in their comments on progressive problem solving, they form the building blocks for further challenges in writing. But to wish for more routine and less difficulty in our writing is to put an end to efforts to expand our knowledge, understanding, and skill. Such a stance presumes that we will finally “get there,” and so have nothing more to learn. Ongoing challenge is what prevents academic writers from wasting away from boredom, and what keeps all of us contributing to interesting projects in our fields.

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