Supporting Faculty in Writing for Publication: Best Practices
We all live in the 'publish or perish' era. Writing for publication is a strenuous process, especially for those whose native language is not English. It requires not only a sufficient level of academic English, but also awareness of genre characteristics of a research article as well as effective communication with editors and reviewers. The topic of providing support to authors seems to be very timely for many universities.
The Academic Writing Center of HSE University organizes a conference 'Supporting Faculty in Writing for Publication: Best Practices' to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its work. The Center has gained considerable experience of assisting faculty in preparing publications and has greatly contributed to setting standards for writing centers’ activity in Russia. Now we open our doors to a wider community.
We invite teachers of academic writing, editors, and writing centers’ staff to the conference. We seek contributions, which aim to explore and problematize the issues connected with training and supporting plurilingual authors for writing publications in English. The conference is a space for sharing the diversity of experiences, expertise, best practices, and also challenges that writing instructors and writing centers’ tutors encounter while helping faculty with writing articles in English for research publication purposes.
Topics for Discussion
Track 1. Faculty support: Organizational models, their effectiveness and challenges
Organizing faculty support has been gathering momentum, but university contexts differ greatly. We invite proposals that address the operational models and designs for faculty support and their impact on writing development among researchers and university staff.
• What aims do writing centers set to satisfy the current needs of the university?
• How do university authorities see the role of writing instructors / faculty support centers?
• What forms of support have been provided in different educational settings?
• What models of writing support seem to be effective? What are the success indicators?
• What synergies between academic writing instructors and institutional departments have been found and can be promoted?
Track 2. Ways of enhancing publication activity among university faculty
Many scholars are struggling to write papers for publication in English. We invite proposals that address the challenges plurilingual scholars face and ways of assisting them in their writing journeys.
• What challenges of identifying and scaffolding the writing of genres in different disciplines do we, as writing instructors and center trainers, encounter while providing faculty training?
• How can writing instructors / writing center staff help writers to meet journal editors’ expectations?
• What type of research is in place or should be done into enabling faculty to write in English?
Track 3. Professional development of writing instructors
Although teachers of English and writing instructors may serve as agents of change in this faculty support process, some do not publish much themselves.
• Why is this the case? How can writing instructors’ research and publications be boosted?
• Where and how can writing instructors develop their professional skills?
• Do Russian universities need an academic qualification “Academic writing instructor”?
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Conference Key Takeaways
Conference participants will have:
• Learnt about colleagues’ experience and the HSE AWC practices
• Developed their skills of writing center pedagogy via workshops
• Participated in hands-on activities based on their draft papers
• Built the community of practice
• Established new contacts via networking
We were looking forward to the submissions, which were peer-reviewed. We expected an abstract of 300 words with a clear indication of the topic, problem, methods, results, and applications/implications. Contributors were kindly asked to consider topics, formats, and criteria carefully before submitting a proposal.
Deadline for submitting proposals – May 15, 2021.
Decision distribution – May 31, 2021.
Registration fee
- Early Bird (before 30.09.21)
₽2000 - HSE University staff
₽3000 - Others
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Late registration (after 01.10.21)
₽4000 - Others
This included the conference package, program, handouts, and a certificate. The program and certificates were provided in the electronic form. See more.
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