Bloomsbury On Writtenness: The Cultural Politics of Academic Writing

The term writtenness is used to describe highlight a socio-academic criterion that is often taken-for-granted. The trope well written is widespread but it is rarely very clearly defined and not adequately described by theory. This book redresses that neglect by contextualizing writtenness as a focal issue in the contemporary context of international higher education. The quality of academic writing is often the source of both practical and ethical dilemmas in the academy, while at the same time the social value and productive role of the writing in the communication of knowledge are underestimated. The book interrogates the cultural power and value of writtenness, while also revealing its relative misrepresentation within academic culture at large. The book includes the following cultural and sociolinguistic themes: -the historicity of a plain and simple stylistic hegemony for academic writing, despite disciplinary specificity; -the existence of writing as a site of intellectual struggle, not only with ideas, but with the communication of ideas; -a symbolic economy of good writing, which includes the metaphysical virtue of transparency; -the threat of bad writing invading the value system of this symbolic economy; -the dual semantics of proofreading; -the élite and remedial economies of international English; -writtenness in contemporary international higher education as a motor of linguistic change rather than the repository of standards and correctness. -the cultural shift from print to the digital age; -Mobility and flux in form and uptake Review I have enormous regard for the originality of Turner's argument around "writtenness+? and the wide-ranging historical, philosophical, theoretical, rhetorical, and pedagogical resources she brings to bear on her examination of this key term. As a practitioner, she reveals a keen understanding of the implications for student writers from differing lingua-cultural backgrounds who may not have had access to the conventions required to produce a "smooth read+? and for tutors whose intellectual work is minimized by demands for "proofreading+? and "pristine+? prose. Turner's book should be a must-read for scholars seeking to understand the complex causes and layers of our expectations for "good writing+? and the "virtuous rightness+? it has come to embody over the centuries. Her argument-that we must replace our expectations for a smooth read with a more open interpretive stance, even though that may mean coping with a "rougher ride+?-will resonate with scholar-teachers engaged in translingual work.Terry Myers Zawacki, Emerita Professor of English and Emerita Director Writing Across the Curriculum, George Mason University, USAIn this timely work Joan Turner interrogates the concept of 'writtenness' in its philosophical, historical and sociological contexts ranging from John Locke to Pierre Bourdieu. Not since the textual dichotomy between form and content was opened up and critiqued by Barthes and Derrida has the idea achieved so much scrutiny. Turner successfully demonstrates the highly political implications of this ideological complex within contemporary higher education.Chris Jenks, Professor of Linguistics and former Vice-Chancellor, Brunel University, UKWritten language has long been an orphan in the study of language. Joan Turner, a uniquely qualified voice in this field, shows how detailed attention to it raises fundamental theoretical issues, of consequence for the entire field of language, culture and society. This elegant and compelling text is sure to raise major, and long overdue, crossdisciplinary debates - a rare achievement.Jan Blommaert, Professor of Language, Culture and Globalization and Director of the Babylon Center at Tilburg University, the Netherlands About the Author Joan Turner is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Language Studies Centre at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.