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Overlapping and divergent agendas: writing and applied linguistics research

The contribution of post-modern approaches to our understanding of writing and applied linguistics research features prominently in a number of recent discussions that survey these two fields (Lillis 2003, Ivanic 2004, Weideman 2003a and Rajagopalan 2004). An examination of these discussions of approaches to writing enables one not only to critique them, but also to compare them with characterisations of different modes of applied linguistic work. The comparison reveals a number of possible gaps in research on writing, and suggests that the latter may have something to learn from the historical development of applied linguistics. An added benefit is that such an analysis may also reveal (and suggest ways of dealing with) a number of uncritical assumptions in post-modern approaches to writing. Post-modern approaches When aimed at the design of solutions to practical problems, especially in the socalled applied disciplines that concern themselves with human development, academic endeavour is characterised by a never-ending search for improvement and refinement. This is certainly true of applied linguistics, which in this contribution shall be defined as a discipline of design, concerning itself with the solution of language problems (cf. Weideman 1999, 2003a, 2003b). Though applied linguistics of course encompasses the design of solutions to all manner of language problems, historically its concerns have been dominated by problems related to language teaching and learning. Because most of my own experience lies in this sub-field of applied linguistics, the discussion below will refer mostly to that. This does not imply that other areas (cf. Davies 1999 for a broad discussion) are not worthwhile, merely that the focus here will be limited mainly to the design of applied linguistic