Helping Doctoral Students Write

Description

This essential guide offers a new approach to doctoral writing, written specifically for doctoral supervisors. Rejecting the DIY websites and manuals that promote a privatised skills-based approach to writing research, Kamler and Thomson offer a new framework for scholarly work to help doctorate students produce clear and well-argued dissertations. Drawing on a wide range of research and hands-on experience, the authors argue that making an original contribution to scholarly knowledge requires doctoral candidates to do both text and identity work. Their discussion of the complexities of forming a scholarly identity is illustrated by the stories and writing of real doctoral students.

Reviews

'We wanted to write something that theorised but with a very light touch; a book based in scholarship, rather than merely promoting it, which would address what are some of the complex issues at stake.' - Professor Barbara Kamler from Deakin University's Education Faculty, who co-authored the book withProfessor Pat Thomson from the University of Nottingham, UK

'In Helping doctoral students write, Barbara Kamler and Pat Thomson have produced a powerful and useful book that achieves a delicate balance between providing rigorous and challenging theoretical insights into the complexities of doctoral writing and simultaneously outlining many practical writing strategies supervisors can implement with their doctoral students.' - Teaching in Higher Education

Contents

1. Supervision and Doctoral Writing 2.Writing and Identity 3. Writing the Self into the Thesis 4.Writing a Literature Review or Mapping the Field of Knowledge Production 5. Writing an Abstract: The Argument Writ Small 6. Constructing the Dissertation: The Argument Writ Large 7. The Grammar of Authority 8. Becoming "Writerly" 9. Towards Institutional Writing Cultures

Author Bio

Barbara Kamler is Professor of Education at Deakin University, Australia.

Pat Thomson is Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK and an Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia.

Related Subjects

1. Behavioural Management
2. Curriculum Studies