‘Permission to write’: Building a community of inter-disciplinary writers

Abstract

Academic writing has been described as enjoyable, terrifying, and hard slog, with many reasons why academics struggle to write. Here, we describe the third iteration of a generic writing programme for academics who wanted to meet the imperative to publish. Using surveys, weekly feedback and our own journals we gathered evidence of the programme’s effectiveness. We developed a structured framework within a community of practice where academics could gain writing acumen and increase confidence, giving themselves permission to write amid conflicting requirements of teaching, research and service. Our data shows the different dimensions of the course that participants experienced as effective, enabling us to anatomise writing support with the precision that facilitators will find helpful. Significantly, we make the case that the social dimension enabled our academics to be productive.