Tracing the Chequered History of the Academic Writing Course in the University of Calicut

Abstract

This paper deals with the chequered history of academic writing in one of the state public universities in Kerala, India, the University of Calicut. Academic writing was introduced in 2009 and was taught till 2014. It was removed for a short duration of three years before being reintroduced in 2017.The paper argues that there are political, administrative and educational reasons for the uneven history of the course. While the political and administrative reasons stifled the course, the educational reasons drained its core principles. Since academic writing was introduced along with the semester system, the history of the course is examined alongside the semester system. The paper elaborates on the limitations of introducing a course that demands flexibility within a rigid educational system. It is proposed that discipline specific research writing courses must be introduced in core subjects and integrated with generalist academic writing courses for achieving the learning objectives envisaged in it.