Raewyn Connellknow. Modern research has gone into ghastly weapons and polluting products, from
DDT to drones. Neither states nor corporations can be trusted to use knowledge only in
humane ways. But the struggle for human survival and social justice itself needs
knowledge; in fact, needs growing knowledge and wider access to it. Even small
research contributions become part of the shared wealth of knowledge in the public
domain, and sustain the collective process of producing knowledge and understanding.
This is easy to see for biomedical or engineering knowledge. It also applies in the social
sciences and humanities, for the self-understanding of cultures and societies. The
stakes are large. If our institutions seriously hamper writing for research – by economic
pressure, by political or managerial control – they damage humanity’s capacity to learn.
Practising the craft
In the Age of Wal-mart, the connection between a usable object and the work of the
people who made it is heavily disguised and easily forgotten. That also happens with
research. Formulaic “outputs” conceal the human labour involved. There’s a mass of
bad writing out there!
So it is good to notice, and celebrate,
the work itself. I have emphasised
that writing for research is generally
slow and often difficult. Yet there is
great satisfaction in doing a slow and
difficult job well. There’s a real
pleasure in feeling a good sentence,
a good paragraph, a good line of
thought, taking shape under your
hands. It’s even a sensual pleasure.
Not as high as going to bed with
someone you love; but it lasts
longer...It’s a craft you learn the same way as
you learn any other: by watching
skilled people do it, and then
practising, and practising, and
practising. It’s good to read a lot, and
in different forms: drama and poetry
are very useful for prose writers. I
read a lot of poetry in translation, the
oddest of all genres – it makes me
think about the writing process on two
levels at once.Doing a slow job well (^)