Gill Simpson studied English at Leeds, and after another career, studied for a master’s degree in theology and then taught theology and religious studies in a university. She is now completing a doctorate, using autoethnography, and she talks with us about her earlier experience of academic writing as a visceral, physical experience – using handwriting rather than a word-processor. The French philosopher Derrida praises handwriting too, as ‘with the computer, everything is rapid and so easy; you get to thinking that you can go on revising for ever’. Recently, Gill has rediscovered the value of handwriting in academic writing, as it makes it more personal and engaging. That is also related to her doctoral work on how the ‘personal’ is often driven out of higher education, through focus on structures and other minutiae. Writing freely should not, however, be a luxury.

In an even more visceral metaphor, Gill talks about academic writing as being too often just about the head, with the body, like a headless horseman, allowed to gallop away into the distance. Academic writers need to focus on ‘how to’ issues, but these should include ‘how to be’ issues. In the future, Gill hopes to do more work encouraging freewriting, and encouraging joy in academic writing.

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