2-minute tip #2: Relationship to texts
Two-minute tips provide short suggestions on how to improve your research. This two-minute tip looks at how there is a shift in relationship to texts from undergraduate to postgraduate level. At undergraduate level, students are often expected to be ‘knowledge tellers’ who have to demonstrate that they have read and understood the literature. Many novice researchers continue to engage with the literature in this way at postgraduate level and this is problematic. What we need is a more authorative stance where the researcher sees herself as a (novice) member of the field. In this way she draws on literature to make her own contribution.
Explore these additional resources
- Just write – a video about getting going on your writing
- How to keep a reading journal – a video about making sense of the literature for yourself
- Supporting academic writing practices in postgraduate studies – this useful booklet provides a number of activities to improve academic writing
- 2-minute tip #1: Joining the conversation – this short video urges researchers to spend some time figuring out the literature before they rush to make a contribution
- 2-minute tip #3: Direct or indirect quotes – this short video offers a look at when to reference directly and when to paraphrase into your own words
Who might find this useful?
The two-minute tips might be useful for any supervisors or students who would like a bit of inspiration. They also make quick additions to a workshop.