Postgraduate writing Archives - Enhancing Postgraduate Environments

How-to-guide on Writing Tools

PostGrad — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 10:04:14 +0000

This narrated PowerPoint presentation discusses the challenge many postgraduate students face: fitting enough time into every week for reading and writing towards a finished thesis. The resource offers three ‘tools’: the Pomodoro Technique, Freewriting, and Shut-Up-and-Write sessions, as tools or strategies postgraduate students can use to make the most of their writing and reading time, and to ensure that they can fit time in for these tasks every week. Additional reading and resources for further consideration accompany the video. It should be watched along with ‘Just write’, also on this website. These tools can also be used with reading and research journals, which you can look up under ‘Starting a PG journey’.

Developed by Sherran Clarence, Independent higher education consultant.

Explore these additional resources

Just Write

Useful websites:

Questions for users:

For supervisors/PG support staff: could you use one or more of these tools in supervision or writing support sessions? How could a workshop or supervision meeting include freewriting, for example, on a topic that students would benefit from brainstorming on? Could you encourage students to use these tools, and if so, how would you see them working for your students?
For students: Arrange your own writing group meetings. Think of 2 or 3 people in your department or programme that you could spend an hour or two with each week, writing. Set up a day and time for a Shut-Up-and-Write session, and a place to meet. Debrief with one another afterwards, and see if the session helped, and if it did, arrange a further meeting. Start small, and build from there, as this is more manageable in the long run.

Who might find this useful?

This material is primarily for postgraduate students, although the tools could be used in workshops with students run by postgraduate and/or writing support practitioners, to assist with time management within workshops, or model the use of the tools.

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Formatting your Thesis Part 2 – Layouts and Breaks

PostGrad — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 09:51:50 +0000

Creating a neat, well laid-out and carefully formatted thesis is an important part of preparing a thesis for examination. Careless errors, inconsistent spacing, and different fonts and font sizes, for example, can communicate to examiners that you do not take your work seriously, and this could create a poor first impression. This screencast recommends a page layout template, and the use of page and section breaks to create a neat, clearly laid out thesis, and takes the viewer through a step by step process of creating the template, and inserting page and section breaks. There are also additional guides under the video, as well as the script with screenshots, for additional reading and assistance.

Developed by Sherran Clarence, Independent higher education consultant.

Explore these additional resources

Formatting:

Extra readings and guides:

Creating section and page breaks
Example of thesis layout: 1 | 2

Who might find this useful?

This material is primarily for postgraduate and postdoctoral scholars, to assist them with formatting their thesis or dissertation.

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Working with Literature

PostGrad — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 08:57:36 +0000

Literature reviews tend to be one of the toughest parts of thesis writing, and research. This is in part because the volume of reading is large at MA and PhD level, and usually involves connecting two or more bodies of literature. Keeping track of all of the reading, and being selective and strategic, is a challenge. In part, this is also because students may struggle to move from summarising and synthesising the reading, to using the reading to make an argument in relation to their own study’s focus. This Prezi provides an overview of what a postgraduate literature review should aim to be, and focused advice on how to read, and write, strategically to shape a strong, relevant contextual framework for a PhD or MA study. There is also a worksheet users can download to guide focused writing about their own contextual framework, or ‘literature review’ sections.

Developed by Sherran Clarence, Independent higher education consultant. Special thanks to Kenny Chiwarawara for the narration.

Explore these additional resources

Additional reading:

Questions for users:

For supervisors/PG support staff: Think about the literatures your students are working with: how could or should these be connected? Can you assist your students with ‘framing’ their field, through talking through the bigger picture of the research? How can you then guide them in connect their literatures together to create a context for their study, that relates to the bigger picture?
For students: Start with the worksheet; it is designed to helped you articulate for yourself what bodies of literature you are reading, why, and what the connections are (so far) between them. From here, you can hopefully then begin to write this section (if you are starting out), or revise this section if you already have a draft. The additional reading recommended above will provide further guidance and explanation.

Who might find this useful?

This material is primarily for postgraduate students, although the video and worksheet could be used in workshops run by postgraduate and/or writing support practitioners, to assist students with unpacking, articulating the structure of, and writing their literature review or contextual sections.

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Responding to reviewers

PostGrad — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 07:48:22 +0000

Publishing is hard work: it takes a long time, and a lot of effort. Even once a paper is finally submitted to a journal for consideration, the process is far from over. There is still peer review to receive and respond to, and a paper may go through more than one round of revisions before it can be accepted for publication. This process can be confusing, and overwhelming for novice authors who have not yet published their work in peer reviewed journals or books. This Prezi thus explains what peer review is for in academic publishing, and how publishers and authors can benefit from it. It offers a few illustrative examples of how an author could respond to journals editors, when resubmitting a revised manuscript. Further, it includes tips on how to manage feedback, and general advice on communicating with journal editors especially. The links and extra reading beneath the video are added for further reading, and advice.

Developed by Sherran Clarence, Independent higher education consultant. Thanks to Cherrel Africa for the narration.

Who might find this useful?

This material is primarily for postgraduate and postdoctoral scholars, to assist them with managing peer review and preparing a revised paper for a journal or edited book. This can also be used in writing for publication workshops, along with the suggested extra readings and resources.

Explore these additional resources

Choosing the right journal (internal link)
Doing revisions: http://wp.me/p3VNfn-8m ; https://patthomson.net/2015/04/16/revision-its-not-just-about-cutting-words-out/ ; https://patthomson.net/2014/02/24/good-academic-writing-its-about-revision-not-editing/
Peer review: https://patthomson.net/2017/06/19/when-peer-review-is-scent-marking/
Responding to peer review: http://matt.might.net/articles/peer-review-rebuttals/; https://www.editage.com/insights/how-to-respond-to-comments-by-peer-reviewers ; https://patthomson.net/2011/08/19/journal-etiquette-2-what-to-do-with-a-poor-review/
Getting support in the review process: https://patthomson.net/2014/10/20/3610/

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Keeping a Research Journal

PostGrad — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 07:19:12 +0000

This narrated PowerPoint presentation discusses, briefly, the value of reflecting on a research process as it unfolds. This reflection is enabled through the researcher learning to chronicle, or document, the process in a journal. As with a reading journal, a research journal’s role is to provide a space for the researcher to note ideas, arguments, struggles, good and bad days, questions, connections between bodies of literature, theory and data, and so on… all captured to enable the researcher to track progress, patterns of thinking, and development of their ‘voice. Here, voice is conceptualised as the point of the research, or the main argument and claims it seeks to advance. The presentation argues that learning to keep effective research journals throughout a research journey can enhance and enable the process of developing, and expressing, a clear and confident researcher voice. It takes the user through the purpose of the journal, what they could do to make effective journal entries, and explains why keeping one of these journals is beneficial during postgraduate study.

Developed by Sherran Clarence, Independent higher education consultant.

Who might find this useful?

This material is primarily for postgraduate students, although it could be useful in workshops with students run by postgraduate and/or writing support practitioners, to encourage discussion around the value of academic journaling in postgraduate studies.

Explore these additional resources

Keeping a reading journal – internal link
How to guide on writing tools – internal link

Useful blog posts:

Questions for users:

For supervisors/PG support staff: In what ways could you incorporate journaling into your supervision or PG support sessions, to encourage students to write in these informal and reflective ways? How might journaling enhance your own writing and/or supervision practice? In what ways could this tool enhance your students’ meta-learning about writing, and research praxis?
For students: what value can you see in journaling? Consider how writing informally in a research journal could enhance your ability to critique and analyse aspects of the research you are doing, or writing you are working on. What might you be able to learn about yourself as a writer? What value could this have for you later on, should you become a supervisor or mentor to other postgraduate students?

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Keeping a Reading Journal

PostGrad — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 07:00:27 +0000

This narrated PowerPoint presentation discusses the central role of reading, especially, in postgraduate research, and tackles the issue of how to keep track of what one is reading along with how to relate that reading to one’s own research. A crucial part of a researcher’s development in postgraduate study is their ‘voice’, understood here as the ability to express their own ideas in relation to the ideas of others, and to situate and argue clearly for their own research within a field of study. The presentation argues that learning to keep an effective reading journal can enhance and enable the process of developing, and expressing, a clear and confident researcher voice in relation to the work one has to read and incorporate into one’s own writing. It takes the user through the purposes of the journal, what they will need to do to make effective journal entries, and explains why keeping one of these journals is beneficial during, and following, postgraduate study.

Developed by Sherran Clarence, Independent higher education consultant.

Who might find this useful?

This should be watched along with ‘Keeping a research journal’.

Explore these additional resources

Keeping a research journal – internal link
How to guide on writing tools – internal link

Useful blog posts:

On keeping a reading journal: (http://wp.me/p3VNfn-o)
On reading in postgraduate study:
Finding the reading you need to do (http://wp.me/p3VNfn-8r)
Reading your way into your field (http://wp.me/p3VNfn-6P)
How much reading is enough? (http://wp.me/p3VNfn-6s)
Strategic reading (http://wp.me/p3VNfn-fW)

Questions for users:

For supervisors/PG support staff: In what ways could you incorporate journaling into your supervision or PG support sessions, to encourage students to write in these informal and reflective ways? Can you create ‘reading and writing’ spaces in workshops, or formalised writing circle meetings?
For students: what value can you see in journaling? Consider how writing informally in a reading journal could enhance your ability to critique and analyse the reading you are doing, or reflect on your writing.

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Crafting an Argument

PostGrad — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 09:55:45 +0000

Argument! This is a word many students hear, but struggle to understand and enact in their writing. Argument are crafted, chapter by chapter and section by section of a thesis or paper, and this is a time-consuming and iterative process. Building on the video on this site entitled ‘Thesis as Argument’, this more practical material offers two tools students can use, adapt and build on as they plan, craft and refine their own arguments over the course of the research and writing process. Together with several recommended blog posts and a worksheet, students will be able to follow a structured process that will clarify, and make achievable, the development of a clear, well-supported argument that shows, rather than tells, readers what their research contributes to their field.

Developed by Sherran Clarence, Independent higher education consultant. Thanks to Laurence Piper for the narration.

Who might find this useful?

This material is for supervisors, postgraduate support staff and students, as the development of strong argument in thesis writing is a task that requires input, collaboration, constructive feedback, prompting, and iterative revisions throughout the research process. It can be used well in supervision session, support workshops, and by students working on their own, with the accompanying worksheet.

Explore these additional resources

Thesis as Argument (internal website link)

Useful blog posts on arguments:

How to argue like a pro: https://thesiswhisperer.com/2016/11/09/better-than-donald-how-to-argue-like-a-pro/
Research as an argument: https://patthomson.net/2011/07/30/research-as-an-argument/
http://wp.me/p3VNfn-cP
http://wp.me/p3VNfn-7L
Argument as a ‘golden thread’: http://wp.me/p3VNfn-7F
Worksheet

Questions for users:

For supervisors/PG support staff: What insights do you have from examining or supervising PG research specifically about the nature of arguments, and how to make these well that you can turn into constructive advice and tips for your students? How do you make arguments in your own writing – can you share your process with your students in ways that could help them?
For students: Take one or both of these plotting tools, set out for you in the attached worksheet, and plot your argument. Consider, if you get stuck, what you are stuck on and why. Make some notes if you are having difficulties, and take them to your supervisor/s, and perhaps also peers or a postgraduate support person, and ask for help so that you can move forward constructively.

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Formative feedback (for supervisors)

PostGrad — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 09:37:37 +0000

Feedback is a contentious topic in higher education: it’s purpose is understood as to give student writers direction and advice on developing their writing. But it also has a more tacit role in helping student writers to develop their thinking, and their ability to be critical, analytical and increasingly independent in their writing and research, especially at postgraduate level. At this level, supervisors provide the bulk of feedback students need to work with. This happens over an extended period of time, and the feedback needs to vary in form, tone and content, depending on which stage of the research journey students are in. Most supervisors are not coached in feedback-giving, and it is not always easy to know what kind of feedback to give, and when. This material outlines what formative feedback is, and what role in plays in student-writer development at this level. It also includes a screencast with an example of a ‘feedback conversation’ between a student and her supervisors, to illustrate the way formative feedback can be given, and responded to, in a student/supervisor relationship. Ultimately, the material encouraged supervisors to use their feedback to enable meta-reflection, so that students can develop their immediate writing, as well as their capacity as writers and thinkers.

Developed by Sherran Clarence, Independent higher education consultant. Thanks to Martina van Heerden for the narration.

Who might find this useful?

This material is for individual use postgraduate supervisors, and writing coaches or mentors, or in workshops facilitated for postgraduate supervisors on the role and work of supervision in PG research.

Explore these additional resources

Useful blogposts:

Additional reading:

NPF report on best practice for supervisors (https://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-1659/best-practice-in-supervisor-feedback-to-thesis-students.pdf)
Catherine Manathunga (2007) Supervision as mentoring: The role of power and boundary crossing. Studies in Continuing education, 29:2, 207-221, DOI: 10.1080/01580370701424650.
Nickola C. Overall, Kelsey L. Deane & Elizabeth R. Peterson (2011) Promoting doctoral students’ research self-efficacy: combining academic guidance with autonomy support, Higher Education Research & Development, 30:6, 791-805, DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2010.535508

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Getting the feedback you need (for students)

PostGrad — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 10:40:47 +0000

Feedback on our written work is something that we tend to have mixed feelings about: we want and need it, but we dread what supervisors, reviewers or peers may say about our writing. It is difficult not to take critique personally. Sometimes, we anticipate constructive feedback, and get far less than that, and this lack of guidance and advice from supervisors or mentors can make it difficult to progress, and grow in ability and confidence as researchers and writers. We cannot always choose out supervisors at postgraduate level, or induce them to give us the feedback we want in the tone we want it in. But we can, where possible, become proactive feedback seekers through focusing on developing an awareness of who and where we are as writers in the research process. It is an important part of our development as researchers to learn not just how to respond constructively to feedback, but also how to ask for feedback that will prompt us to develop as writers and thinkers. This presentation takes students through the different kinds of feedback they could ask for at different stages of the research process, and offers advice and a few examples students could use to guide them in seeking feedback from their own supervisors and mentors proactively and constructively.

Developed by Sherran Clarence, independent higher education consultant.

Who might find this useful?

This material is primarily for postgraduate scholars, to assist them in reflecting on what kinds of feedback they need and want on their writing, and to offer advice on how to proactively look for this feedback from supervisors and mentors.

Questions for users:

For supervisors/PG support staff: Consider offering your students opportunities to ask you for particular kinds of feedback – show them that these kinds of requests would be welcome. Encouraging your students to become more proactive will benefit you in the longer run, as they will likely feel more ownership of, and responsibility for, their writing and research. Consider watching the related video on giving formative feedback, designed for supervisors and mentors.
For students: what kinds of feedback have you been getting? How has it helped you, and how could it be improved in terms of being useful to you? Consider translating these reflections into an approach to your relationship with your supervisor that shows them: your willingness to receive feedback; your awareness of where you are in your research process and what feedback you feel you need; and your ability to respond to the feedback effectively.

Explore these additional resources

Why does feedback hurt? https://thesiswhisperer.com/2014/05/28/why-does-feedback-hurt-sometimes/
Coping with harsh feedback http://jameshaytonphd.com/how-to-cope-with-harsh-supervisor-feedback/
Getting what you need from feedback: https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/feedback-on-writing-not-getting-what-you-need/; http://wp.me/p3VNfn-5A
On being braver in asking for feedback: https://thesiswhisperer.com/2014/02/05/are-research-students-a-bit-like-meerkats/
Seeing feedback as a gift: http://wp.me/p3VNfn-aE
Deciphering your supervisor’s feedback: http://wp.me/p3VNfn-4j

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