Design + Writing = ?
“Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble”
There is a rumble swelling in the graphic design department this year. I can hear it in the distance. It's about the role of academic writing in the education of a graphic designer. This long overdue discussion is inspired by the highly uninspiring process of revalidation. Through this process there's a commitment in the department to 'fully integrate theory and practice.' A welcome move on a theoretical level, but not yet a practical one. Most agree that this has to change. But how?
This should be the fun part but it seems to bring out the imposter syndrome in everyone. Not long after the paperwork gets approved I imagine we will find ourselves in a rumble of a different sort. 'Studio tutors' in one corner, 'theory tutors' in the other. Arms folded across puffed up chests. Each side refusing to take a step toward the centre of the ring. When it finally does get going, I imagine the liveliest round will be the one for the dissertation.
Brexit of graphic design education
What intrigues me about academia are all the ideas, practices and methods that are not up for debate. The dissertation is such a thing. In my brief time in education I've encountered few things as polarizing. It's something like the Brexit of graphic design education. The words ‘criticality’ and ‘dissertation’ seem to be interchangeable around here. It’s as if we have lost sight of the fact that one is a format for expressing the other. One of many.
There are a few round here that love to describe the dissertation as a transformative experience. Epic language that, isn't it? very clever in the way it insinuates that anything other than an 8000 word essay will be a less-than transformative experience. Ordinary perhaps? Pedestrian even? And who would argue for that?
'Delivering Pedestrian Educational Experiences.'
Not a line you're likely to read in a prospectus anytime soon.
While it is of course important to focus on the positives of the dissertation, it would be a mistake to assume that is what is happening here. When we use these phrases like ‘the transformative experience’ to shut down conversations about writing, what are we really doing? Are we not simply expressing a normative position? Saying that the dissertation or essay represents an 'essential' or 'correct' practice? With this, are we are not reproducing a very specific type of academic identity?
The shape of thought
What I generally find in the centre of these discussions about ‘critique’ is a very limited critique of the power and identity privileged by these very specific formats. It makes me wonder if all this format-obsessed elitism is not masking other more practical realities? While the dissertation is a transformative experience for some, it represents a very real and significant barrier for others; both as a format and an educational experience. Of course, we love to talk about the wide range of ‘support’ available for students with writing. But would truly inclusive practices not include alternative methods of teaching and assessment? Or at least a discussion about them?
Take for example the significant and increasing international student base. The discussion seems overly focussed on the challenges of writing in a second language but a recent study shows that students and staff tend to diagnose these issues in the very different ways (Cennetkuşu 2017:15). I wonder, does our tendency to blame language alone reveal a deeper belief? Perhaps that the form and function of critical analysis is a universal concept rather than a cultural construct?
Yes, certain styles of academic writing are valued and taught in universities all over the world but is not necessarily the way (creative) students conceptualize or negotiate problems. There is nothing inherently natural or comfortable about it for any student, regardless of background. Familiarity with conventions is a significant barrier (Braxley 2004), along with a broader need to develop ‘critical awareness for the rhetorical aspects’ of writing (Li 2007:73). O'Connor (2017) highlights a general ‘anxiety’ connected to 'the nature of formulating thoughts.' So, English language alone would seem to be just one part of a much larger picture.
Space and time
It’s at this point in the recurring debate where I also tend also question the space and time we provide to internalize, critique and apply these 'acceptable' ways of thinking and writing. Aside from Academic and Language Support classes, do we tend to teach writing in meaningful ways? Or do we simply expect that students know how to write? What prior knowledge do our practices assume?
Tardy (2005:325) identified the need for ‘gradual and continuous’ writing instruction. Progressing students from ‘knowledge-telling’ to ‘knowledge-transforming' in which they ‘actively construct new knowledge’ acknowledging the (hardly rocket-science) understanding that as students progress — so do their needs. I often see this reflected in the complexity of writing tasks as students progress through the course. Rarely do I see this translate to the teaching of writing itself.
The larger question
I guess my larger question is if this commitment to formats is actually about criticality at all. Or is it, as Lillis & Scott (2007) have argued about maintaining the existing values and practices of academia?
In a discipline like Graphic Design, why do we cling so tightly to these borrowed academic traditions? After 60+ years in the academy, are we really yet to develop our own disciplinary relationship to writing?
Someone always raises the question of use-value. Generally a practice-based tutoir. What, they ask, is the real use is the single-author monograph to a graphic design student beyond their studies? It’s here the theory tutors love to defend with their chat about the handful of students who put their dissertation in the final show. Keyword for me there: Handful. Let’s be honest, 'transformative experience' is pretty conspicuous in its absence in the majority of graphics degree shows.
Considering the time, energy and anxiety this all seems to represent , could we not focus on something more practically useful? George Orwell once said that 'language is an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.' How could we better teach to those ends? Could we support students to develop their writing in a way that has more direct relevance to their identity and practice? As Kenneth Goldsmith has discussed, 'there are many ways to use language: why limit to one? A well-rounded education consists of introducing a variety of approaches.'
Context
As a Course Leader on a one-year graduate course, I do not have a dissertation to contend with. I do however have written components in all my Units. I am taking this as an opportunity to reflect and develop a different approach to writing on the course. Some of the questions I have in my mind are:
What range of writing practices do students engage with through the course?
What time and space is made for these?
Can we move beyond the academic essay and explore a broader range of writing styles and formats in design?
How might writing become a more meaningful part of a students practice?
How do I get myself into this…?
References
Barnett, R. (2004) Learning for an Unknown Future. Higher Education Research & Development. of Journal, Vol 23, No 3, August 2004, p256. doi: 10.1080/07294360.2012.642841
Braine, G. (2002). Academic literacy and the nonnative speaker graduate student. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 1, 59-68.
Braxley, K.. (2004). Mastering academic English: International graduate students' use of dialogue and speech genres to meet the writing demands of graduate school. Dialogue With Bakhtin on Second and Foreign Language Learning: New Perspectives. 10-28. 10.4324/9781410611659.
Cennetkuşu, N. G. (2017 ) "International students’ challenges in academic writing: A case study from a prominent U.S. university". Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies 13: 309-323
Cennetkuşu, N. G. (2011a). Challenges of dissertation writing in foreign language. E-Journal of New World Sciences Academy: Education Series, 6,
O'Connor, John. (2017). Inhibition in the Dissertation Writing Process: Barrier, Block, and Impasse.. Psychoanalytic Psychology. 34. 10.1037/pap0000132.
Gao, L. (2012). Investigating ESL graduate students' intercultural experiences of academic English writing: A first person narration of a streamlined qualitative study process. The Qualitative Report, 17(12), 1–25.
Li, Y. (2006). Negotiating knowledge contribution to multiple discourse communities: A doctoral student of computer science writing for publication. Journal of Second Language Writing, 15, 159-178.
Lillis, T and Scott, M (2007) ' Defining academic literacies research: issues of epistemology, ideology and strategy', Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4(1): 5-32.