You are a business professor. Are you a writer?
“I didn’t realize that I would be writing so much,” said a doctoral student in marketing to me years ago as we discussed his thesis. We might shake our heads and wonder what his supervisor was doing, but I have heard the same statements from early career researchers as well, some of them already a few years into their research-track jobs.
My initial shock and dumbfoundedness have, with time and experience, turned into a cold observation: Business academics do not see themselves as writers.
They might identify as researchers, data scientists, engineers, or industry professionals doing something theoretical, but they do not see themselves as writers.
And I believe that this is the reason we continue to have editorials in the AMJ, academic articles in business journals, articles published in non-academic outlets and the very many books that continue to talk about how to produce good academic writing (references at the end).
The Pervasive Role of Writing
This anecdotal finding of mine is surprising on many levels. Given that the main currency of academia is written text, it is baffling that business professors do not invest more in writing. Every significant activity in academia is done through writing: writing research papers, reviewing papers, writing review decisions, replying to reviewers’ comments, applying for grants, submitting conference abstracts, evaluating conference papers, publishing proceedings, collaborating with co-authors, and writing articles for public outreach. And this list merely scratches the surface.
As Zhihui Fang says in his blog post What is Academic Writing?: “Academic writing is a means of producing, codifying, transmitting, evaluating, renovating, teaching, and learning knowledge and ideology in academic disciplines.”
Words on the page are how we evaluate others and are evaluated in return. Words on the page stand in for the quality of our thinking and critical ability. Words on the page determine the depth and breadth of our scholarship. Words on the page form our reputation—that alternative currency of academia. So why wouldn’t we put all our weight, effort, and attention into the words we lay out on the page?
Not Seeing Oneself as a Writer: Significant Consequences
“No Clear Story” / Poor Positioning / “Your Contributions Are Unclear”
When you don’t see yourself as a writer, your focus remains on methods and data presentation, at the expense of creating a clear narrative. But as we know, it's about more than just presenting data; it’s about framing that data within a context that makes the work meaningful and engaging. “I recommend that you prioritize your paper’s story and use the data and findings in a supporting role,” says management scholar Donald Bergh.
Academics who neglect this aspect of writing often find their work critiqued for lack of coherence and impact. I have seen too many reviewers’ comments over the years that highlight this issue, pointing out the absence of a clear narrative structure. Here are some examples of comments I have seen: “Your manuscript is well written. Unfortunately, all three reviewers recommend that I reject this manuscript.” I have also read: “You need to sit back and decide what paper you want to write and then tell a coherent and sharp story, both conceptually and analytically.”
Under-use of Writing Tools
When academics shun the identity of a writer, they do not work the craft of language. They are unable to take advantage of the various language tools available to a writer. The parts of speech are the raw materials of language and can be manipulated to create different effects. Owning the identity of a writer means knowing that a string of nouns creates unnecessary abstraction, a powerful verb makes a sentence punchy, and signposting helps the reader navigate the manuscript with a lower cognitive load. It is knowing that linking sentences through familiar concepts moves the manuscript forward and creates a smooth flow for the reader.
But more than knowing these rules and tips, being a writer is about using them strategically, to create the effect on the reader that one wants. Sure, AI tools are adept at writing what we want, but to truly control our text, to give prominence to our voice, and to say exactly what we as the authors/creators/researchers/thinkers need to convey, we need to see ourselves as writers using writerly tools to do writerly things.
Writing as a Dreaded Chore
Writing to a deadline becomes the norm when you don’t see writing as a craft. If writing is not an integral part of your identity, it comes to be seen as a task that needs to be carried out before the publication deadline. The mindset becomes one of throwing down enough words on the page to have something resembling an academic paper in one’s hands. It is no surprise that such papers lack depth and often face the death knell of rejection. And it is this very attitude that fuels questions from participants in my academic writing workshops about whether there exists a clear template for writing papers. The answer is, and will always be, “No, you have to work that out in your writing.”
Moreover, without a healthy and robust writing practice, writing comes to be seen as a chore rather than a natural part of the academic routine. The dread and stress of having to produce words to a looming deadline can leave some faculty hating writing, eventually leading them to be blocked, manifesting itself as “procrastination”. I have encountered this so-called procrastination repeatedly in clients who have signed up for my writing coaching practice, and I talk about in much more detail in my writing productivity workshops.
First Steps to Embracing Your New Identity as a Writer
The first step to making this transition to seeing yourself as a writer is to give writing a more prominent place in your life. Create a daily writing practice, read a wide variety of writing (not just journal articles but also fiction, good non-fiction books, and magazine articles), and keep a notebook or journal where you note words, phrases, and sentence structures that you found remarkable or enjoyed reading.
Read widely.
Join a writing group, exchange ideas about writing, share frustrations, ask for tips, and cultivate a joy of words and the process. Sign up for newsletters about writing, attend literary festivals, go to book signings and readings.
Read widely.
Reverse outline everything you read. Engage like a dog with a juicy bone. Focus on the sounds and read text aloud. Hear the silences, the rhythmic beats, the melody of the language, and do it for every language you know. Juggle with the words, throw them up and see how they land. Rearrange words on the page to change how you think, but also rearrange words in your head to change how you write.
Read widely.
Being a writer is all that. To begin with.
References
Ahlstrom, D., Bruton, G. D., and Zhao, L. (2013) “Turning Good Research into Good Publications,” Nankai Business Review International, 4(2): 92-106.
Cloutier, C. (2016) “How I Write: An Inquiry into the Writing Practices of Academics,” Journal of Management Inquiry, 25(1): 69-84.
Grey, C. and Sinclair, A. (2006) “Writing Differently,” Organization, 13(3): 443-453.
Huff, A. (1999) Writing for Scholarly Publication, Sage.
Kiriakos, C. M. and Tienari, J. (2018) “Academic Writing as Love,” Management Learning, 49(3): 263-277.
Pinker, S. (2014) “Why Academics Stink at Writing,” The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Ragins, B. R. (2012) “Editor’s Comments: Reflections on the Craft of Clear Writing,” Academy of Management Review, 37(4): 493-501.
Sword, H. (2012) Stylish Academic Writing, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.
Warren, N. L., Farmer, M., Gu, T., and Warren, C. (2021) “Marketing Ideas: How to Write Research Articles that Readers Understand and Cite,” Journal of Marketing, 85(5): 42-57.
Zuckerman, E. S. (2008) “Tips to Article Writers,” MIT Sloan.
“Publishing in AMJ - Part 1 [to Part 7],” Academy of Management Journal.