Proteus as writer: the role of the (academic) writing class in preparing Australian graduates for careers in the creative arts

Abstract

For academic leaders in the creative arts in Australia, recent publications inspire and inform ongoing consideration of how best to prepare students in practice-led disciplines for professional life beyond the academy. In 2010, the Australia Council for the Arts reported on its most recent survey of the careers of professional artists in Australia and, in 2011, the Australian Learning & Teaching Council published threshold learning outcomes for students in practice-led disciplines in the creative arts. Both point to the need for graduates to have skills that enable a confident transition between the academy and the creative industries, and that strengthen graduates' prospects for continuing employability in fields in which the protean career is common. These skills are practice-based and specialist, and generic. Of the generic skills, written communication is typically demanded at university as 'academic writing'. Such writing can, however, be restrictively perceived as being formulaic and of limited relevance to professional life beyond the academy. This paper advocates the teaching of academic writing to students in the creative arts, but in such ways that transcend narrow generic definition in order to develop in students both technical competence in formal, written communication and an awareness of principles of academic writing that are relevant to professional writing more broadly, within the context of the protean career. In doing so, the paper focuses on academic leadership as represented by those who design curricula for, and teach students in, practice-led disciplines in the creative arts. While this iteration of leadership may be less visible than others, it nevertheless can be formative and transformative for students as future protean careerists.