Writing disciplines: producing disciplinary knowledge in the context of contemporary higher education

This paper addresses academic disciplinary writing practices, and how these are affected by changes in the landscape of Higher Education in the UK. After exploring the definition and understanding of the notion of “discipline”, the paper presents research from an ESRC-funded research project studying academics’ everyday writing practices, working closely with academics across different disciplines and different kinds of higher education institutions. The changing context of Higher Education in the UK is presented, in particular the emergence of new kinds of managerial practices which shape and co-ordinate the everyday writing work of academics. The paper shows that while some disciplines, such as History and Pure Mathematics, are associated with clearly-defined writing practices, others are more diverse. It discusses how managerial practices, particularly those driven by centralised national research evaluations, affect different disciplines in different ways