“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours”: Suggestions for developing writing confidence

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Sharing writing, Writing buddies, Writing confidence

By Sara Cotterall and Morena Botelho de Magalhães

Morena and I have worked in universities for a number of years. Amongst other things, we share a passion for languages and beer! Morena grew up in Brazil and I am from NZ. In 2014 we met at a conference in Bangkok and in 2016, we met at a conference in China, by which time we had become colleagues and friends. So, in 2017, when Morena was doing her PhD in Auckland and I had returned to New Zealand from teaching in the Middle East, we decided to present a conference paper together: “Doctoral research by EAL candidates: How effective is generic support?”. In 2019, with our friend Diego Mideros, we co-authored an article about identity, voice and agency in doctoral writing. So, having dined, researched, presented, travelled and written together, we thought it was time to blog together!

We believe that CONFIDENCE is essential for effective writing and wanted to share some strategies for building writing confidence. We planned the post together and have indicated who contributed what. We hope you find our suggestions helpful. [Sara]

Sharing writing, though often feared by novice writers, is beneficial [Morena]

Perhaps not all novice writers are afraid of sharing their work, but this was certainly my experience.

Doctoral writing development: supervisors and institutional support Part Two

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Supervisors and writing experts, Third space practitioners, Writing support

By Claire Aitchison

In the previous blog post I explored how doctoral writing is supported through the work of supervisors and ‘third space’ practitioners, that is, those who operate from institutional units such as learning or writing centres, research offices or academic development units. In that post, I tried to tease out what might be different between centrally provided services and the work of a supervisor in relation to doctoral writing development. It’s a slippery space that challenges us to (re)consider our roles and practices.

Here I extend that discussion to consider how supervisors and third space practitioners can work together.

Doctoral writing development: supervisors and institutional support Part One

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Academic developers, Academic literacy advisors, Researcher developers, Supervisors as writing teachers, Writing Services

By Claire Aitchison

Many of our readers work with doctoral candidates in support roles either as researcher educators, academic literacy advisors, or academic developers, often in addition to being doctoral candidate supervisors. In this two-part blog, I draw on my own experiences, to explore the differences and interfaces between these roles, and what this means for the doctoral candidate.

I am thinking out loud – this is a work in progress designed to invite comment on my nascent reflections about the practices that mark our work with doctoral writing.

Writing Conference Abstracts

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Abstract, Conference abstracts

Claire Aitchison

For many researchers, presenting at a conference is the vehicle for the first ‘public’ display of their work. Whether you are supporting others with their conference abstract, or a student making your first draft – this post outlines key features for a successful abstract. Most of us are familiar with the abstracts of scholarly papers, however, while similar to the abstract that accompanies a journal paper, conference abstracts have some unique features.

Doctoral Writing 10th Anniversary!

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Doctoral writing, Writing as social identity; the reader as significant other, writing skills development

By Cally Guerin, Claire Aitchison and Susan Carter

We are delighted (and somewhat amazed) that we’ve arrived at the 10^th anniversary of the Doctoral Writing blog. The world seemed such a different place when we put up our first post in September 7^th 2012! 

Photo by Anna-Louise

The three of us were still relatively new as colleagues back then; however, we shared a vision for a platform to foreground our collective interest in doctoral writing.

Sharing knowledge – from ancient manuscripts to PhD publications

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journal articles, publication, research writing

By Cally Guerin

At the end of June, I was lucky enough to attend the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) conference in Melbourne, Australia – the first face-to-face conference I’ve been to since 2019. This conference included a couple of papers directly related to doctoral education, but is focused on higher education more broadly. There were, however, many doctoral candidates reporting on their studies, many with a view to publishing their research.