Writing in the Humanities: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Writing is the most important tool of academic communication. It is the medium we need to write dissertations, conference presentations, book chapters, and journal articles, to mention but a few. All these activities attest that writing is central to the academic and professional development of faculty members. However, research findings reveal that it abounds life-long doubts, false starts, frustrations, procrastinations and the feeling that we are not yet ready to write. In this connection, the purpose of this paper is four-fold: to highlight the writing challenges in the humanities; to give insight into the scholarly writing conventions in the humanities; to unfold the methodological decisions made by researchers in the humanities; and to assess the reliability of scientific evidence in the humanities.