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First Steps in Research

First Steps in Research. Centre for Academic Writing (CAW) Coventry University Dr. Dimitar Angelov. Workshop Overview. Introduction Identifying your discourse community Exploring ideas through writing Finding support. Introductions…. What is your role at the University?

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First Steps in Research

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  1. First Steps in Research Centre for Academic Writing (CAW) Coventry University Dr. Dimitar Angelov

  2. Workshop Overview • Introduction • Identifying your discourse community • Exploring ideas through writing • Finding support

  3. Introductions… • What is your role at the University? • What are your research interests? • What is your experience with writing for publication? • Are you currently working on a research project? • What stage are you at?

  4. Research as Creating New Knowledge • Adding knowledge to a discourse community • Defining discourse community: • Disciplinary experts in your field: subject discourse community • The readers of a particular scholarly journal: journal discourse community

  5. Entering the subject discourse community

  6. Active Reading: building good habits • Read a lot both within and outside your discipline • Read regularly rather than voraciously • Find a regular reading time (about 1h a day) • Always carry reading with you • Keep track of key writers in your field • Use your network to filter your readings • Join (form) a reading group • Skim read and then re-read the material to save time; keep track of your sources

  7. Entering the journal discourse community

  8. Understanding the journal discourse community • What is the journal? • Who is the reader? • What is the contribution I would like to make to the conversation in this journal? • Why is this an issue, to whom and why? • What might happen differently if my contribution is taken up?

  9. Fundamental Parameters of a Journal • About/Aims and Scope • scope of research published; • geographical, institutional, organisational scope • key words • impact factors: e.g. SCImago Journal and Country Rank (http://www.scimagojr.com/index.php) • Editorial board • Browse • abstracts, articles, special issues, most downloaded articles

  10. Entering the subject discourse community

  11. Make Time for Writing • Schedule ‘protected writing time’ in your calendar • Schedule one session every day (perhaps, give yourself 1 day off per week).If possible, schedule each session at the same time every day. • Make sure you write in each of the sessions scheduled in your calendar. • If you get stuck, write up your impression from an article you have recently read (Annotated bibliography). Freewrite (see below). • The important point is to keep to the schedule and develop your writing habit.

  12. Freewriting • How much do you know about freewriting? Do you use it in your own practice, if so when and how? • Freewriting aims to separate the process of generating ideas from the process of editing them. • It involves continuous writing for a short time (usually 5 or 10 mins) with a particular topic in mind. • Key factors for the success of this activity are: • To write slowly, without interruption throughout the session • To write without regard to any rules associated with writing, i.e. grammar, style, punctuation • To write without reading your output (at least initially)

  13. Freewriting (continued) • When your 5 (10) mins are up STOP and take another 5 (10) mins to clear up the messy text you have created. • To do so you might: • Look for good ideas to develop or rescue from the mess • Place all similar ideas together – like with like • Organise the text (move sentences around to make more sense), or • Generate a few more sentences to complement what you have

  14. Clarifying the contribution • Rehearsing your argument through mock abstracts • Abstracts are normally written last • They showcase the argument in the paper and are painstakingly written • Mock abstracts mimic some of the logical structure of actual abstracts but are used to generate and explore ideas

  15. Mock Abstract in Four Moves(based on Thomson and Kamler 2013) • Locate • Focus • Report • Argue

  16. Mock Abstract in Four Moves(please make notes) • Locate: • positions the paper vis-à-vis the subject discourse community • large issues/debates are named/ problematised • makes a claim regarding the relevance and significance of the contribution • Focus: • identifies the questions/issues/kinds of problems the paper will address

  17. Mock Abstract in Four Moves(please make notes) 3. Report: • outlines the research, sample, method of analysis • outlines the main findings of the research 4. Argue: • offeres an analysis to explain findings • communicates a clear point of view/stance • refers to Locate section to highlight contribution • answers the ‘So what?’/‘Now what?’ questions

  18. The failure of dissertation advice books: towards alternative pedagogies for doctoral writing (sample: Thomson and Kamler 2013: 61-62) Locate:Anxious doctoral researchers can now call on a proliferation of advice books telling them how to produce their dissertations. While these might be helpful in the short term they offer little that the doctoral researcher can use to analyse their own texts or to understand the source of their anxiety.

  19. Focus:This article reveals some characteristics of the self-help genre through a textual analysis of a corpus of published books, delineating their key genre characteristics. Report: Our analysis shows that the texts: produce an expert-novice relationship with readers; reduce the dissertation to a series of steps; claim to reveal hidden rules; and assert a mix of certainty and fear to position readers ‘correctly’.

  20. Argue:We argue for a more complex view of doctoral writing as both text work-identity work and as a discursive social practice. We reject transmission pedagogies that normalise the power-saturated relations of protégé/master and point to alternative pedagogical approaches that position doctoral researchers as colleagues engaged in a shared, common, unequal and changing practice.

  21. Task: • If you are currently working on a research paper (or have an idea for one), try to write a short mock abstract for it, using the four moves above (i.e. Locate, Focus, Report, Argue). • Report back to the group about your experience.

  22. Keep and Share a Writing Log • Keep track of your writing progress by using a writing log (See sample from Goodson 2013) • Make sure you begin and end each writing session with an entry into your log • The advantages of using a log are: • Keeps you on track with your writing and makes you accountable to yourself • Motivates further writing through positive reinforcement • Helps you remain accountable to colleagues, managers, etc. • Helps you analyse your writing: identify productive and counter-productive writing behaviour

  23. Keep a Writing Diary • The writing diary can be an MS Word document in which you make notes to yourself about the development of a piece of writing. • A writing diary can complement the use of a writing log. • In it, you can make note of questions, items you need to check, links you would like to make, what remains to be done, etc. • A writing diary is an invaluable tool which helps you stay on track with your research when you juggle too many responsibilities or interrupt your work for a period of time.

  24. A Writing Diary: Sample (Goodson 2013) April 12, 2011 Today: finish key sentence file for chapter 4. Read Chapter 4 out loud. Okay: finished key sentences file and incorporated edits into Chapter 4. Tomorrow: read out loud once more. Submit to D. for review. April 13, 2011 Today: read chapter 4 out loud once more. Send to D. for review Okay… Read up to the end of Exercise 18. Tomorrow: Need to read exercises 19 and 20, and add Research Shows box to this chapter.

  25. A Writers’ Group As a Support Network • A writers’ group: researchers who meet regularly to write and for support and feedback (Murray 2005) • The purpose of a writers’ group is to: • Make time for writing • Getting feedback on writing • Discussing writing practices • Sharing information about journals, editors and reviewers

  26. Writers’ groups need not include only peers in your discipline; they can be set up across the institution. • They are a source of positive – yet critical- responses to writing-in-progress. • Such groups can involve as few as 4-5 people. • You can meet to write together for as little as 3-4 hours a month. • Members of the group should remain committed to it for at least 2-3 months, with meetings once or twice a month.

  27. Time for questions...

  28. Bibliography: • Goodson, P. (2013) Becoming an Academic Writer. Los Angeles: Sage • Murray, R. (2005) Writing for Academic Journals. Maidenhead: Open University Press. • Thomson, P. and Kamler, B. (2013) Writing for Peer Reviewed Journals: Strategies for Getting Published. London: Routledge

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