We are all scribblers now but scribbling is not regarded positively. Nevertheless, scribbling is described as one of four connected processes in a useful model of academic writing. These metaphors are frivolously summarised as scrabbling, scribbling, scribing and scrubbing. Frivolity is first presented as an antonym of academic seriousness. But it…

Academic writing, especially the writing of research articles, dissertations and theses, is often viewed in the literature as "writing up". It is as if first comes the research, an active creation of new knowledge, and then comes the writing, a relatively passive assembling of what has already been achieved. It is as if researching and writing…

Diversity is generally discussed in terms such as "being diverse", "being unlike", "difference" and "variety". Academics, as expressive writers, try to make their understanding of a concept such as diversity as explicit as possible, as part of their discourse of giving and asking for reasons. As such, diversity may be viewed both positively and…

Fundamentalism and democracy are presented as opposing forces in a world in conflict. Fundamentalism is described both as a threat to democracy itself and also to supposedly democratic institutions such as the university. First, fundamentalism is defined in its various guises: Christian, Islamic and economic. Each of these forms is pernicious in…