Open Writing

As soon as Fred left the room the three girls began talking about him.

"What's he doing here?"

"He doesn't need a degree, have you seen how old he is? He must be 80!"

"A hundred, more like. Someone younger could've had his place, it's not fair"

They stopped abruptly when Marjorie came in. She sat down across the table glaring at them, her cloud of white hair shining with droplets from the rain outside.

We were all new students in the first year of our university degrees. Like the three girls, I had just left sixth form [the last two years of high school in the British system -- ed.], but Fred, Marjorie, and twenty or so others in the course were career changers and retirees looking for a new direction in life.

At the time I thought my Art History department was particularly unusual for having such a high number of mature students. I later discovered that there are many like them in Britain's universities.

Fred and Marjorie were in their 70s. They didn't need degrees to improve their career prospects. They had already worked long enough, but they wanted to learn new things and occupy their minds.

Closer to me in age were students like Louisa. After a divorce she had taken a long hard look at life and decided she wanted more qualifications and a new career.

For older people, taking three or four years out of work to follow a university course is a serious undertaking. With tuition fees and living expenses, each year of a degree costs at least £5,000 (US$9,000). For those with children and a mortgage, it's an extremely difficult prospect.

The fact that being a student is easier for teenagers than it is for 30-somethings is a problem. We don't always know what we want to do when we are younger.

How many people are kept out of professions in medicine, law, academia, and journalism because they don't realise that it's what they want to do until it's too late?

There are solutions. The Open University allows everyone to fit courses in around their careers, and if money's an issue there are ways to learn new things without paying for an expensive university education. It is possible for anyone who develops an interest in the arts and humanities to educate themselves and produce research like that of trained academics. Does that sound like a good project for your retirement years?

In Britain today we are not used to the idea that someone with few or no formal qualifications can be a scholar on equal terms with university academics.

One reason for this is that at present the system is weighted against these kinds of scholars. Postgraduate degrees are needed to teach in universities and to work above a certain level in many other kinds of scholarly institutions. With employment comes regular access to research materials, practical information, funding, and the chance to integrate into a scholarly community.

Another reason is that formal university education and employment also provide scholars with the kind of training that is difficult to replicate when you're teaching yourself.

In Britain the average 35 year-old history lecturer has three degrees taken over a period of seven or eight years. After graduating as a Ph.D in their late 20s they continue their training with a series of short term teaching and research contracts, before finally securing a permanent lectureship.

The long years spent immersed in the university environment act like water on a river bed. The young scholar is slowly "eroded" into shape, learning the conventions of academic presentation and thought.

Independent self-trained scholars may lack the instinctive knowledge of academic methodology that comes with this immersion experience. As a consequence they are sometimes prevented from publishing their research in academic publications.

The work of some independent scholars, no matter how brilliant, can appear unpolished to journal and book editors more used to dealing with university academics.

Universities haven't always dominated scholarship in Britain. Back in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries any man with sufficient income and leisure could devote himself wholeheartedly to research and be taken seriously by his scholarly peers.

It is tempting to think of that time as a golden age, but it wasn't. The world of learning belonged to people with money. The majority of the population were too poor to go to school to learn the literacy skills needed for research, and didn't have the luxury of leisure.

The golden age will come when lack of formal training and employment do not exclude independent scholars from the resources, funding, and publishing opportunities open to university academics.

The key to that golden age is the Internet, and it is already being turned in the lock.

Scholarship is not possible without access to research materials. Far from being the enemy of independent scholars, many academics and learning professionals are working to make resources freely available online.

This material includes academic books, articles and journals. For examples, take a look at the following websites run by Birkbeck College, Oxford University, Sharon Howard, the Institute of Historical Research and Library and Archives Canada.

Other websites carry the texts and images of original historical documents. The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, Project Gutenberg, the National Archives and Early Modern Resources illustrate the kind of sources that can now be found online.

In addition the larger museums provide picture catalogs. For examples click on the following links: The National Portrait Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, British Museum and the National Gallery.

Before the internet independent scholars were isolated from each other and their counterparts working in academic institutions. Now blogs can be used as an informal tool for the presentation and exchange of information, research, and ideas between university academics and independent scholars.

Unfortunately, at present blogging can be a dangerous activity for young academics and it is even actively discouraged in some universities. Apart from fears that a disgruntled blogger could ruin the reputation of a university, Internet activity is also seen by some older lecturers as a frivolous distraction from research.

Rather, universities should encourage staff to actively engage with the blogosphere. Academics are in a privileged position and can pass on the kind of practical information that is difficult for independent scholars to obtain on their own.

This includes the location of libraries and archives, announcements for seminars and conferences, and the procedures surrounding academic publishing and funding. Historian Sharon Howard's blog has become a reference point for hundreds of scholars for that very reason.

Other popular academic blogs include Pharyngula, Cosmic Variance, Crooked Timber, Muninn, Airminded and Maids, Wives and Mistresses.

Writing skills play a large part in an independent scholar's ability to communicate his or her research. We all need to write regularly, otherwise we become rusty and it takes some time to get back up to speed again.

Keeping a daily research blog is a good way to share knowledge and reawaken long dormant writing muscles.

Some independent scholars may find that they are satisfied with blogging in their own styles and that they have no interest in writing for formal academic publications.

At present, the majority of senior university academics do not take blogs as seriously as books and journal articles. However, students are beginning to refer to information found on blogs in their essays. There is no way of telling how this will develop in the future.

All scholars write with a readership in mind. Many young university academics focus their writing towards their colleagues. This is necessary because an academic's career progression quite often depends on the judgement of other academics.

Independent scholars are lucky because their livelihoods do not depend on the university system. If they want to write for academics and university students they can, but they are able to choose a different readership.

Some may prefer to write for children or young adults, particular linguistic, cultural or regional groups, or readers with learning difficulties. The choice is endless. Thanks to the Internet, it is possible set up websites to display research in a way that targets the intended readership.

Writing for academic publications should not be dismissed as an option. Academic articles and books are only published after they have been peer reviewed. This means that the publisher sends the manuscript to other scholars for comments, suggestions, and approval.

This process ensures the quality of the publication, and is a learning experience for scholars because quite often the faults in their work are dissected with brutal honesty.

By sharing findings in academic publications, independent scholars actually help the cause of other researchers like them. Formal academic and research institutions currently dominate access to the resources and funding needed for scholarship.

This situation may change if enough independent scholars publish good quality work in academic vehicles. The institutions and funding bodies will recognize that the work of independent scholars equals that of paid academics, and make more opportunities available to them.

The challenge, as stated earlier in this article, is that it's not easy to write and think in an accepted academic style if you have taught yourself outside the university system.

Not so long ago the only solution would have been to read as many academic publications as possible and seek the advice of a friendly lecturer. Now with the citizen journalism model developed by OhmyNews there is another way.

OhmyNews receives hundreds of news stories everyday. These are selected, edited to a professional level and put online.

This system democratizes journalism because it gives a voice to people who are not trained media professionals.

Happenstance, geography, poverty, war, lack of political representation, and social neglect prevent many people from attending school and university and receiving the training necessary to work as professional journalists.

Over a period of time the OhmyNews editing process trains citizen journalists to write like professionals. Contributors learn from the changes made to their stories and consequently develop as writers.

An academic journal imitation of OhmyNews could train independent scholars in the thought processes and writing methods needed for academic publication.

In addition to copyediting articles, the Web site staff would be rather like university tutors. They would tell contributors how to improve as writers and point out contradictions and weaknesses in the research.

Most importantly they would help citizen scholars to think in an academic way by suggesting further avenues for research.

Finally after some weeks or months, and of course peer review from scholars working in the same field, the article would be ready for publication on the Web site.

An online citizen academic journal would do a lot to encourage independent scholarship outside the universities. My hope is that someone somewhere will take note of this idea and develop it.