Academic texts in motion: A text history study of co-authorship interactions in writing for publication

Journal article, 2022

Knowledge production in collaborative writing for publication has tended to be studied as fixed in time and place; few studies have focused on the drafting and redrafting of texts and the interactions among the co-authors involved. Using a text history approach to a research article co-authored by an exiled academic and his two more experienced co-authors, all using English as an additional language, this study investigates the impact of interactions during text production on the focal academic’s understanding of writing for English-medium international publication. We analysed the co-authors’ comments on the academic’s drafts, examining their Intervention Levels (levels of directness and explicitness) and Intervention Areas (disciplinary, writing, and publishing conventions) and the academic’s responses to these interventions. Analysis focused on interaction episodes (written interactions relating to a specific point in the text and relevant textual changes throughout drafts). Findings revealed that interventions focused on multiple areas, with the co-authors acting as knowledge brokers in all domains. The interaction dynamics changed across the drafts, in the focus of interaction episodes and the levels of co-authors’ interventions provided to the academic, which created a space to negotiate interventions and, consequently, to enrich his understanding of writing practices for international publication in English.