A good argument: the thesis of the thesis

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argumentation, structuring argument, writing skills development

By Susan Carter

It is easy (and sounds self-evident) to say that a thesis needs a thesis—i.e., an argument—but it’s easier said than done to produce that thesis in doctoral writing. This post proposes that the thinking done through writing is perhaps the most powerful route to developing a good argument. I’ll begin by considering the qualities of a good argument before pondering on ways to tell whether an argument has really developed to its best iteration. Often it is only once the whole project is completed that the author is able to say defensibly what the findings of the project mean. This means just before submission they need to make what is usually called an argument.

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Reverse engineering of writing: Reading to see how ‘good, interesting writing’ works

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argumentation, English language writing skills, Precision, writing skills development

By Susan Carter

This post draws heftily on Gina Wisker’s website, the Good Supervisor, and directs readers to it: read to the bottom of this post for the password! Meanwhile, the post gives an example of one of Gina’s exercises that doctoral writers could undertake to improve their writerly skills. It’s a series of reverse-engineering prompts designed to help doctoral students learn how to ‘notice’ (Kumar & Kumar, 2009) the strategies that good research writers use. I noticed that Gina Wisker says to pick ‘good interesting’ exemplars—that is exactly the kind of writing that early career researchers should be encouraged to notice and aspire to produce.

Here’s Gina’s exercise.

Struggling to be more productive? Maybe this book can help?

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Making time for deep thinking, Productive writing habits

A Book Review by Claire Aitchison

Newport, Cal (2016). Deep work: rules for focused success in a distracted world London. Piatkus

“You need to read this!” said my colleague as she handed me this book. She’d heard of my struggles to survive in my new open plan office and she’d seen me sweat and strain under the daily tsunami of emails.

But I’ve never been a fan of the self-help genre, and besides that, I don’t have time to read for pleasure! So it sat around in my lounge room until, spurred on by guilt, I picked it up with the aim of reading just enough to politely return it. However, I found that, despite myself, I enjoyed it – enough to encourage doctoral students and academic friends to have a look for themselves.

Writing and time-scheduling: How long does it take to write that thesis?

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planning and managing writing, Scheduling thesis writing

By Claire Aitchison

This question comes up frequently for students and their supervisors as they try to plan for timely completion of the PhD. And we’ve written about it before.

We all acknowledge that writing productivity is more complex than any formula. But it is possible to make a reasonably accurate ‘guess-timate’ by adopting practices that increase productivity in combination with output calculations that are based on project targets, writing tasks, and real, personal circumstances.

Getting graduates to publish from their theses – an online Writing Bootcamp

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online mentoring, publishing research, writing boot camp

This week’s guest bloggers are based in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Peter Rule is an associate professor at the Centre for Higher and Adult Education in the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University. Liezel Frick is an associate professor and director of the Centre. Magda Fourie-Malherbe is a professor at the Centre.

By Peter Rule, Liezel Frick & Magda Fourie-Malherbe

Encouraging graduates to publish from their theses, and so share their findings with a wider audience, can be a challenge. While universities encourage such publication, Anthony Paré (2010) notes that the kind of pedagogical work needed to support student (co-)publication is often not well understood or supported within institutions. The challenge is even greater when graduates have left their alma mater and are enjoying the relief and normality of ‘a life after the thesis’.

Some students do manage to publish from their theses, before or after graduation. However, we have also seen many of our graduates’ theses disappear into libraries or repositories, even though we felt they had something to contribute more widely. While graduates might intend to publish from their theses, it often does not happen because of loss of support and momentum, and because life just ‘takes over’. With this in mind, we decided to initiate an online ‘writing bootcamp’ to facilitate the writing and publication of graduates’ work. Here we share research in progress on the writing bootcamp process.

Grant-writing season

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competitive grants, grant application, grant writing

By Cally Guerin

The annual research grant-writing season recently finished in Australia. It’s always timed to occur during the summer teaching break, so that instead of enjoying some well-deserved time off, academics are flat out putting together detailed proposals, competing for part of an ever-smaller pot of research money. As government funding has reduced and more academics put in applications, we engage in this hugely intensive and time-consuming activity in the full knowledge that there is only a very slim chance of success. Most universities run workshops where experienced researchers and successful grant winners offer advice. These workshops are invaluable. In this post, I’d like to add some of my own reflections on my experience this year, and share some useful tips for other grant writers and those helping them through the process.