• About
  • Blog
  • Doctoral Writing Discussions
  • Contact us

DoctoralWriting

DoctoralWriting

Tag Archives: certainty through writing

Finding certainty in an uncertain world – how writing can help

09 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by doctoralwriting in 3. Writing Practices, 5. Identity & Emotion

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

certainty through writing, qualitative research writing, writing and meaning-making

By Claire Aitchison

As I explore this idea I’m thinking primarily – but not wholly – of qualitative researchers who must learn to live with a high degree of uncertainty. Of course, to be admitted and/or proceed with their project most doctoral scholars will need to write convincingly about their research design, describing the aim, research questions and method. Quite rightly, everyone takes this first account very seriously. Supervisors and students will work to make the research proposal as accurate as possible—after all, it will be the basis for years of work ahead. Students are encouraged to make clear decisions and write with certainty—even though we know for qualitative researchers there is a degree to which these declarations of intent may be a bit of a charade. What I mean by this is that, although a research proposal proclaims with confidence the nature and purpose of the investigation to be undertaken, in truth, the newly minted doctoral student (and their supervisor) may secretly concede the text holds plausible degrees of uncertainty. Continue reading →

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts.

Join 18,489 other subscribers

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Categories

  • 1. The Thesis/Dissertation
  • 2. Grammar/Voice/Style
  • 3. Writing Practices
  • 4. Publication
  • 5. Identity & Emotion
  • 6. Community Reports
  • All Posts

Events

  • British Educational Research Association Conference
  • EARLI (European Association for Research and Learning and Instruction)
  • HERDSA Conference (Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia)
  • Quality in Postgraduate Research (QPR) Conference
  • The Society for Research into Higher Education Conference

More people like us

  • Association for Academic Language and Learning (AALL)
  • Explorations of Style: A Blog about Academic Writing
  • patter
  • Research Whisperer
  • Thesiswhisperer
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • DoctoralWriting
    • Join 2,799 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • DoctoralWriting
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar