Closing the gap between text and context in researching academic writing: revisiting ethnography as method, methodology and deep theorising
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52292/csl5420244674Keywords:
ethnography, writing research methodologies, text trajectoriesAbstract
Exploring academic writing from a contextual perspective remains a fundamental concern in research projects aimed at exploring the nature of writing— what is 'academic writing'?—and the consequences of specific configurations of academic writing— who participates in academic writing and under what conditions? This article has two objectives: 1) to summarize the arguments I proposed in an English-medium publication in 2008 on how to avoid a textualist perspective in the study of academic writing, using empirical and conceptual resources provided by ethnography; 2) to offer some critical reflections on the arguments I originally presented, including a sharper articulation of the importance of the notion of indexicality to bridge the gap between text and context. Throughout the article, I include questions that have arisen since 2008 in publications and conversations with colleagues about the arguments made, as well as some brief reflections.
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