Public scholarship, synonymous with "non-academic writing" or "public writing," is written for the general public. Public scholarship is published quickly and can be written by anyone. Its language is informal, casual, and may contain slang. It can focus on any general topic. Its purpose is to inform, entertain or persuade the readers. By engaging in public scholarship, you add your voice to today's cultural discourse through a wider audience: the general public. However, when you publish to a wider audience, there is risk involved. You could make yourself a target, not only for other authors in your field, but for public criticism as well. There can be other articles written in response to yours that could be potentially harmful for your career.
Writing for a public audience has key differences from writing for an audience of fellow scholars. Use these resources to think through how to adapt your approach.
In Write Like You Teach: Taking Your Classroom Skills to a Bigger Audience, James M. Lang, Professor of Practice at the Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Notre Dame, discusses how to apply your teaching knowledge to create learning experiences when writing for a public audience. He also published a three-part series for The Chronicle of Higher Education distilling the major points of the book.
Write Like You Teach: Taking Your Classroom Skills to a Bigger Audience
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