Dynamic approaches to researching academic text production: text histories and trajectories

Abstract Summary

Abstract :

In the interrelated fields of applied linguistics, sociolinguistics and literacy studies there is increasing interest in developing dynamic rather than static, or ‘synchronist’ (Blommaert, 2018) orientations to language and communication. The study of academic writing has been dominated by a focus on texts as boundaried objects and in isolation from contexts of production. In this presentation we will focus on a dynamic approach to the study of written texts for academic publication that we have been developing for 20 years: text histories and trajectories (Lillis & Curry, 2010; 2018). History indexes the importance of paying attention to texts, people, places, moments in time; trajectory indexes the importance of paying attention to production and entextualisation processes. Text history (TH) is our term for a key unit of data collection. The goal is to collect as much information as possible about the history of a text, including drafts, people involved –authors, reviewers, translators, editors and academic colleagues – the chronology of involvement and the nature of their impact on the text and its trajectory.







Drawing on a longitudinal study of over 18 years involving more than 200 text histories, we will outline the methodological challenges faced in developing the TH approach whilst underlining its epistemological value. We will use examples to illustrate how shifting the analytic attention away from single texts towards clusters of texts across time and space enables the identification of key moments of production and uptake.







Blommaert, J. (2018) Dialogues with ethnography. Clevedon. Multilingual Matters







Lillis, T., & Curry, M.J. (2010). Academic writing in a global context. London: Routledge.







Lillis, T., & Curry, M.J. (2015). The politics of English, language and uptake: The case of international academic journal article reviews, AILA Review, 28, 127–150.