From Practice to Practice: Writing Academic English from/in Taiwan

Abstract

When I accepted EASTS’s invitation to deliver an online talk on writing academic English for publishing, my main concern was how not to repeat another dogmatic preaching of writing principles—many of us in academia have learned from books and lectures as non-native English users but seldom know how to put them into actual practice. I also did not want to sound like a teacher of writers, since it would be unwise to reproduce classroom boredom in a virtual setting. After all, my goal was to free my target audience—aspiring writers of academic English based in Taiwan— from the sole focus of writing skills as it is often the case that collegeor graduatelevel academic writing curricula to explore the meanings and possibilities of writing scholarly content in a second language. I wanted to converse with the audience as they are “real people,” not the objects of writing pedagogy but instead people who aspire to and struggle with writing in a non-native language to communicate with a larger body of readers beyond the local environment. Through my talk, I hoped to encourage writers to boldly expand their imagination of what they can achieve by learning academic English writing: not just to master writing skills but also to engage with people, create ideas, and initiate action through writing. In other words, to practice writing and to practice through writing. This double meaning of practice, coincidentally, meets the definitions of the word in Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, in which it means “to perform or work at repeatedly so as to become proficient” and “to pursue a ‘profession’ actively.” For the current discussion, that word “profession” certainly encompasses a wide array of scholarly engagement. In my talk, titled “Writing Academic English in Taiwan—Motivation, Mindsets, Methods,” I showed how the expanded aims and scope of learning academic English writing is doable through the three “M”s—beginning with the writers’ inner feelings to the feasible methods situated in specific social-cultural contexts to set and achieve writing goals. Originally designed for graduate students and early-stage researchers, I also hoped the talk could support experienced scholars as they explore new intellectual territories.