The Writing Consultation: Developing Sustainable Writing Behaviour Rowena Murray University of Strathclyde

The problem Academics must write for publication, but find it difficult to make time to do so. Even when ‘permission’ is given for writing in the workplace, other tasks have priority. Even when skills and behaviours are developed, they are difficult to sustain (Murray & Newton, 2008).

The Exercise Consultation 1-to-1 motivational interview Aims to change priorities Aligns priorities with personal values Widely used in health promotion Uses goal setting, balancing advantages and disadvantages of different courses of action and social support to initiate behaviour change.

The Writing Consultation 1-to-1 interviews, pairs of academics Focused on writing goals Reviewing barriers to achieving goals Developing strategies for overcoming them Mutual peer support Proved workable with academics in informal trials (e.g. at end of retreat) Published journal article

Aims of the Nuffield study To implement and evaluate the writing consultation To answer 2 questions: 1. Does taking part in a writing consultation initiate change in writing behaviour leading to prioritisation of writing? 2. Does it increase motivation to write?

Methods 14 (>13) academics who attended either/both writer’s group & writer’s retreat. Met every 2 weeks in pairs for period of 8 weeks (time commitment of 4 hours). Used the Writing Consultation template. 30-minute interviews by external researcher. Ethical approval from the University. Interviews transcribed verbatim and checked. Analysis for core constructs: stages of change, decisional balance, goal setting, social support.

Findings: stages of change & decisional balance Both seen as useful at 1st meeting, but repetitive at subsequent meetings, as position of writing was unlikely to change in such a short period. Decisional balance useful for discussing pros and cons of writing and not writing: ‘a good outlet for discussion on the position of writing’; ‘helpful to strengthen my values and beliefs about writing’.

Findings: goal setting & social support Setting and monitoring goals with others generated sense of achievement: ‘being able to meet these goals put [me] in a better place, and that has a knock-on effect’; ‘lost that constant feeling of low grade failure’. Useful to discuss barriers to achieving goals and ways of overcoming them. Main reported benefit was social support: ‘you know that the fears you have … you are not alone’.

Conclusions: behaviour change Behaviour change leads to prioritising writing. Writing consultation raises awareness of importance of goal setting for writing in the time that we have. Study revealed limited awareness that unrealistic goals lead to failure. Setting goals and achieving them feels good and is highly motivating. Writing goals are more likely to be achieved out of offices.

Issues Those in a structured supervision process reported less behaviour change. A small minority saw the approach as managerialist. The concept of behaviour change initially seemed alien, as did stages of change model. Some confused ‘goals’ and ‘actions’. This confusion and perception of repetition suggest concepts are not yet fully adopted.

References Bandura, A (1997) Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: Freeman. Loughlan, C & Mutrie, N (1995) Conducting an exercise consultation: guidelines for health professionals, Journal of the Institute of Health Education, 33: Miller, WR & Rollnick, S (2002) Motivational interviewing: Preparing People for Change, 2nd edn. London: Guildford Press

References Murray, R & Moore, S (2006) The Handbook of Academic Writing: A Fresh Approach. Maidenhead: Open University Press-McGraw- Hill. Murray, R & Newton, M (2008) Facilitating writing for publication, Physiotherapy, 94: Murray, R, Thow, M, Moore, S & Murphy, M (2008) The writing consultation: Developing academic writing practices, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 32(2):