Projecting Visual Reasoning in Research Conference Presentations

Writing is a skill (and a mode) intrinsically associated with the academic world. Competence in academic writing substantially performs two functions: on one hand it crucially defines community membership whilst, on the other hand, it proves to be an essential resource for marketing oneself in the academic context. Thus issues of identity (collective and individual) are strongly related to the practice of EAP writing. This intrinsic nexus is further endorsed by evidence of the high degree of rhetorical-stylistic conventions which govern academic writing especially when related to specific sub-genres, such as research articles, abstracts or research presentations (Ventola and Mauranen1996; Swales 1990). Despite the high level of normativity recognized in the practice of academic writing (in line with genre analysis studies), this paper challenges the monomodal representation of academic writing and explores the interplay of codified/individualized writing patterns as a reflection of the recent technological developments which have affected communicative styles in other domains. This paper also claims that a researcher’s identity both in terms of community acceptance and in self-promotional terms (the collective and individual dimensions of academic identity) needs to be redefined and posited on the basis of this interplay of traditional/innovative forms of writing. This dynamics of normativity/violation in academic writing practices will be located in two specific sub-genres: abstracts and conference handouts.