Planning Practice & Research Demystifying Academic Writing in the Doctoral Program: Writing Workshops, Peer Reviews, and Scholarly Identities (original) (raw)
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Planning Practice & Research, 2020
This article discusses a course at The University of Texas at Austinwhich sought to facilitate doctoral students' development of scholarly articles while simultaneously fostering their sense of scholarly identity. The article was co-authored by the instructor and two cohorts of doctoral students based on immediate as well as retrospective learning outcome assessments. The social constructivist approach to writing pedagogy fostered students' scholarly identities and demystified the publication process. However, efforts should be made to maintain the practice of writing, sharing, and reviewing and the course should more explicitly foster critical reflections on the relationship between writing, scholarly identity, and knowledge production.
Rethinking doctoral publication practices: writing from and beyond the thesis
Studies in Higher Education, 2008
This article addresses the importance of giving greater pedagogical attention to writing for publication in higher education. It recognizes that, while doctoral research is a major source of new knowledge production in universities, most doctoral students do not receive adequate mentoring or structural support to publish from their research, with poor results. Data from a case study of graduates in science and education are examined to show how the different disciplinary and pedagogic practices of each discourse community impact on student publication. It is argued that co-authorship with supervisors is a significant pedagogic practice that can enhance the robustness and know-how of emergent scholars as well as their publication output. There is a need, however, to rethink co-authorship more explicitly as a pedagogic practice, and create more deliberate structures in subject disciplines to scaffold doctoral publication-as it is these structures that influence whether graduates publish as informed professionals in their chosen fields of practice.
This paper presents a study designed from a socially situated and activity theory perspective aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of how Ph.D. students regulate their academic writing activity. Writing regulation is a complex activity of a highly situated and social nature, involving cyclical thought-action-emotion dynamics and the individual’s capacity to monitor his/her activity. The central purpose was to analyze how writing regulation takes place within the framework of an educational intervention, a seminar designed to help Ph.D. students write their first research articles. The seminar not only focused on teaching the discursive resources of disciplinary articles in psychology but also sought to develop students’ recognition of epistemic stances (ways of knowing) and identities (ways of being) of their academic and disciplinary communities. While doing this, the seminar also aimed at helping students overcome the contradictions they encountered as they constructed their identities as researchers and writers through writing. We collected data on seminar participants’ perceptions (through analyses of interviews, diaries, and in-class interaction) and practices (through analyses of successive drafts and peers’ and tutors’ text revisions). Contradictions represent a challenge for which the individual does not have a clear answer. Consequently, solutions need to be creative and often painful, that is, the individual needs to work out something qualitatively different from a mere combination of two competing forces. The unit of analysis was the “Regulation Episode,” defined as the sequences of discourse and/or action from which a contradiction may be inferred and which, in turn, lead to the implementation of innovative actions to solve it. Results showed that contradictions regarding students’ conceptualizations of their texts—as artifacts-in-activity versus as end-products—and of their identities as disciplinary writers—become visible through certain discursive manifestations such as “dilemmas” and “critical conflicts.” Dilemmas were more difficult to solve than other discursive manifestations, and they mostly appeared in regulation episodes when students were grappling with their identities as disciplinary writers. Regulation of writing identity was slower and more difficult than regulation connected to text conceptualization as an artifact-in-activity. The development of students’ disciplinary writing identity was affected by their perceptions of peripheral participation in the disciplinary community and of contradictions between different communities. Two successful ways students resolved contradictions and regulated their writing activity were to redefine the output and consider the text as a tool to think; implementing these solutions resulted in substantial changes to drafts.. These results might be used to design socioculturally oriented educational interventions and tools to help students develop as disciplinary writers.
Developing A Scholarly Voice Early: Collaborative Writing as a Pedagogy
2020
This qualitative study explores the experiences of 12 first-year students in a doctoral education program by examining students’ self-assessment of scholarly writing skills development during a collaborative writing experience. Cognitive apprenticeship serves as the theoretical framework for this study, offering an instructional paradigm of situated learning activities to teach knowledge and skills through guided tasks, culminating in diminished dependence on faculty as cognitive skills develop. The study returned three emergent themes reflecting students’ experiences in developing a scholarly voice, 1) the importance of feedback to writing growth, 2) the nature of writing as an iterative process, and 3) establishing publication as a motivation to improve writing. Implications for faculty and programs suggest that students benefit from feedback in a variety of settings, and that collaborative writing, as path to publishing, contributes to scholarly voice development early in a docto...
Making the academic writing process explicit for doctoral students in the social sciences
The Qualitative Report, 2023
The purpose of this article is to clarify the academic writing process and stages of publication for novice scholars. With doctoral student mentorship being highly dependent on relationships with faculty mentors, the quality and type of mentorship received varies widely. We designed this article to provide a shared starting point for new scholars trying to navigate the writing and publication process. We use our experiences as three newly tenured faculty members to provide some guidance for students. Additionally, this article adds to the existing body of knowledge on the academic writing process by bringing some hidden curriculum and norms to the forefront and making the information available to all students. Article highlights include four areas of focus of academic publishing: (a) the presentation to publication process; (b) journal choice and preparing for journal submission; (c) revision as a communal process; and (d) the journal response. Within this article, we have recommended several places where new scholars can make decisions ranging from where to submit papers, who and how to ask for help, and ways that they can respond to reviewers.
Academic writing is considered nowadays as a socially and culturally situated activity (Castello ́ , Gonza ́ lez, & In ̃ esta, 2010; Flowerdew & Peacock, 2001; Johns, 2002; Lea & Stierer, 2000), inserted in a (micro) context of specific communicative situations which, in turn, make sense according to the (macro) historical and cultural context in which they take place. This is related with an equally situated conceptualization of language as a cultural and psychological tool (Mercer & Littleton, 2007) which, through its mediating role, allows the mind ‘‘to go beyond the skin’’ (Wertsch, 1991). The previous considerations become even more relevant if we acknowledge that writers participate in several communities that are, in turn, embedded in complex systems of activity. Becoming aware of the tensions and contradictions that are inextricably involved in those systems of human activity is key to this social participatory practice, especially when writers are students trying to deal with learning within academic and, in our case, scientific communities. In this chapter we present the approach to teaching and learning academic writing that we have implemented in an educational intervention in the academic community of Psychology. Our aim is threefold. First, we explain and justify the theoretical assumptions underlying the educational decisions about teaching and learning academic writing that account for the educational intervention. Second, we present and discuss the key principles and characteristics of such intervention. And finally we conclude by presenting some of the findings obtained in different studies we carried out to assess the impact of the aforementioned intervention. While doing so, we use some examples to illustrate the students’ struggles for writing as members of a disciplinary community and for developing an authorial identity, as well as their efforts to make their voice visible in their texts through the use of discursive resources such as citation or their dialogue within their own community of learners reflecting on successive versions of their peer’s texts. To cite this document: Montserrat Castelló, Anna Iñesta, (2012),"Chapter 10 Texts as Artifacts-in-Activity: Developing Authorial Identity and Academic Voice in Writing Academic Research Papers", Montserrat Castelló, Christiane Donahue, in (ed.) University Writing: Selves and Texts in Academic Societies (Studies in Writing, Volume 24), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 179 - 200
In this chapter we present the approach to teaching and learning academic writing we have implemented in an educational intervention in the academic community of Psychology aimed at fostering the development of students’ authorial identity and academic voice in Academic Research Paper Writing. This approach is supported by the theoretical consideration of academic writing as a social and cultural practice and of writing research papers is a matter of enculturation into a new community.The educational intervention focuses on three key aspects: seeking to help students develop a complex conceptualization of texts as artifacts-in-activity, regulate their writing activity and develop an authorial identity and academic voice.Qualitative analysis of students discourse and changes in drafts were carried out in order to understand the students’ construction of knowledge, the sense and the meaning they attribute to their writing practices. This kind of analysis has thrown light into certain ...
Academic Identity Development of Doctoral Scholars in an Online Writing Group
ACADEMIC IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTORAL SCHOLARS IN AN ONLINE WRITING GROUP, 2022
Aim/Purpose This study explores how online writing groups facilitate the academic identity development of doctoral scholars. Background Academic institutions around the world, and especially in developing societies, are demanding increasing amounts of research and publications from their doctoral scholars. The current study used an online writing group to facilitate writing skills development, which bolstered the academic identity development of participating scholars. Academic identity is defined as the becoming and being of an academic scholar, with writing skills as a means of acquiring and performing the status and skills of a scholar. It is reflected in the confidence, contribution, and relationship carried out in writing as a member of the academic community. Methodology This study utilizes narrative inquiry as a research methodology to capture the experiences of six doctoral scholars from two universities in Nepal. We explore the academic identity of doctoral scholars from a sociocultural perspective, employing unstructured interviews, meeting notes, and entry and exit surveys of the online writing group. Contribution This article shows how online writing groups offer unique and impactful opportunities for networking, collaboration, and problem-solving, which can significantly enhance their writing abilities and prospects of publication, thereby fostering their intellectual agency and academic identity. Findings This study reports three findings of the value of online writing groups: addressing gaps in formal education, community as a form of accountability, and virtual
2011
The current research context in Australia and other countries such as the United Kingdom (UK) and New Zealand (NZ) is 'performativity'. This provides opportunities for and obstacles to research higher degree (RHD) students developing their authorial voice. This paper illustrates how to facilitate improved academic writing and increased publishing from doctorates. Using mixed methods, it draws on interviews with eight doctoral students about writing under supervision, observations from a six year project to publish seven books, and six journal articles published from doctoral students' work. Students experienced supervision as being 'written over' by their supervisors, in contrast to the constructive instruction on how to write which they sought, and which would enable them to develop and assert their own authorial voice. Publishing students' work proved to be a long road, but persistence resulted in a one hundred percent success rate. Edited books serve to boost students' confidence. Publication does not necessarily arise naturally from research training. The practical implications are that universities should provide more support to students and supervisors about constructive and confidence-producing ways to improve academic writing. Supervisors should negotiate with students on how to provide feedback. Although illuminated from three perspectives, the research is limited to two disparate Australian universities and small samples.
Rethinking doctoral writing as text work and identity work
2012
Universities playa key role in the new knowledge-based economies through the provision of research and research education, and the production of highly skilled graduates through doctoral programs of many kinds. This role is more significant than ever given the dramatic expansion in higher degree emolments in recent years. As Neumann (2002) notes, between 1991 and 2000 doctoral emolments in Australian universities virtually doubled from 19,000 to over 37,000 (DETYA 2001). This expansion has been accompanied by an increase in the diversity of students in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, nationality and discipline area (Pearson 1999; Johnson et at. 2000). The number of international students has increased rapidly, as many universities in Western countries now actively seek large numbers of students from developing countries for income generation, rather than aid, purposes. Part-time candidature has grown (Evans 2002) and increasing numbers study at a distance (Evans and Pearson 1999; McWilliam et at. 2002).