Organizational and didactic approaches to creating and functioning of academic writing centre in a regional university

the requirement for educators’ and students’ publishing activity increases the number of publications; however, it does not noticeably affect the quality. The problem of the quality of Russian authors' publications should not be solved only by focusing on the leading universities, where most academic writing centers operate today, but by supporting the initiative to develop academic writing in small (regional) universities. The solution of organizational, methodological, personnel problems in the regional university is associated with the integration of its own resources and directions in the development of academic writing. The goal of the article is to present the research results aimed to identify a set of organizational and didactic approaches to creating and functioning of Academic Writing Centre in a regional university. The analysis of domestic and foreign sources on the problems of academic literacy, academic writing, and academic writing centres practices in higher education was used to determine a set of approaches to be implemented in the work of Academic Writing Centre at a regional university. The empirical part of the research involves testing the suggested approaches in the activities of the Petrozavodsk State University Academic Writing Centre, analysing and evaluating the results of the experimental work through questionnaires and interviews. The article suggests the following approaches to the functioning of such academic writing centers: 1) organizational (polyfunctional and collaborative approaches with continuous and staged introduction of academic writing courses into teachers' and students' curricula), 2) didactic (bilingual, transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary, practice-oriented, and interactive approaches). The set of approaches is expected to gradually and systematically develop academic writing in a regional university. The article presents the results how the above mentioned approaches have been practically implemented in the activities of the Petrozavodsk State University Academic Writing Centre. The research results revealed in the article contribute to the development of the theory and practice of academic writing in Russian higher education. It is expected that the implementation of the approaches presented will allow gradual and systematic development of academic writing in a regional university.