Growing a Writing Practice: Non-Extractive Writing

Abstract

Essays for sale, AI, plagiarism, grade seeking: clearly it’s time to revamp research and writing. Students have not learned to write well, they’ve learned to game the system, get the grade, and move on. The dominant colonized system of higher education is seeking to reinvent itself to be more accessible, equitable, and inclusive. Growing a Writing Practice begins with exercises such as writing prompts to create a practice of writing on demand. Then guides the student through a series of exercises that build a toolbox that can be utilized for any research and writing demands. What are those tools? Growing a Writing Practice begins with asking good questions and learning how to draft questions in several ways providing several lenses through which to view the question and possible answers. A culture of extractivist research and writing has emerged. Decolonizing the extractivist approach requires shifting the focus away from bias confirming, data extracting, merely citing toward a process of honouring authors as teachers, published research as teachings, a habit of ethical considerations, and research and writing not as grade seeking but as balanced and purposeful exploration of curiosity and learning. The toolbox includes clarifying search terms, creating a body of work, exploring ethical teachers, assembling envelopes, organizing themes and data, constructing useful outlines, seeking feedback, and producing writing not just for a grade, but to produce mastery. Strongly influenced by Indigenous methodologies, epistemologies, and pedagogy, Growing a Writing Practice provides an opportunity to decolonize writing.