ARROW@TUDUBLIN Finding your voice in academic writing by Deirdre McQuillanABSTRACT
Welcome to the third in the series of peer learning handbooks developed by PhD and MPhil research
students to help assist their peers along the academic writing journey. This handbook addresses the
challenge of finding your voice in academic writing. This is a complex issue and a very challenging one
for PhD and early career academics as they struggle to get a balance between their own identity as an
academic and the expectations of their audience. When the individual or the social voice is
appropriate is a matter of high uncertainty among many academics, not only those in early career.
Integrating a personal voice into academic writing may be perceived as highly risky and it takes
courage and confidence to develop. Personalising the work leaves scholars open to criticism that may
feel more personal. In reading around this subject however the nuances of space for voice have been
explored. This may be selective for particular avenues or contexts of communication. It may even be
normalised through methodological approaches or disciplines from those who have gone before.
Every individual needs to reflect on these issues, if not during the PhD journey then in the years
following.
The handbook is structured starting with Chapter 1 by Intesar Madi, Kevin Corbett and Rawayda
Abdou reflecting on the disciplinary and social impositions of voice in academic writing. Chapter 2
alludes to the complexity and uncertainty that exists because of the multiple dimensions of academic
voice. This chapter is written by Elun Hack, Joanna Kossykowska and Duke Debrah Afrane. Chapter 3
is written from the position of student or early career scholar’s aspirations to find their own voice in
academic writing as part of their identity. It reflects on the problem of huge uncertainty among
students and their supervisors and includes a personal reflection of the journey of one PhD student.
Chapter 3 also reflects on finding your own voice in academic writing when writing in a second
language which carries additional consideration for many scholars. This chapter is written by Christina
Kenny, Saba Shahzadi, Lindsay Harrison, Talal Sorour and Edicleia Oliveira. Moving to Chapter 4, and
as usual in this handbook series, the students want to give prescriptive guidance to help their peers.
Chapter 4 focuses on developing academic voice as a process including practical advice and tips.
Developing academic voice through academic enculturation is one explanation of the process to
consider. The chapter also addresses the challenge for supervisors and reflects on how to teach
students about their academic voice in a nod to the challenge recognised for supervisors and mentors
as well as students. In the end however, we are comforted by the reminder that there is no single or
correct way to write – each scholar needs to find out what works and what does not work in their own
writing. It may even be that students don’t need to expend large amounts of consideration figuring
out their voice to defend a Viva or even to get an article published, but it may become more of a
personal journey that can be discovered and enjoyed more as competency develops and the
fundamentals are met. Chapter 4 is written by Tara Holland, Thi Ngoc Dao, Fardus Sultan, Clodagh
O’Reilly and Shubham Sharma.
We hope this gives you food for thought and helps to reduce uncertainty and confusion on the subject
of integrating your voice into your academic writing
Publication Date: 2021
ARROW@TU DUBLIN The Right Way to Write: an Academic Writing Guide for First Year Undergraduates by Mary O'Rawe and Brian MurphyABSTRACT
This booklet has been designed to provide a first-year undergraduate student with a single source of information and guidelines to help them produce better work at the level of writing required at college. It is intended for first-year undergraduates, whether on a level 7 or level 8 degree, so that they can start to build the skills and learning required on the student journey towards their degree.
Publication Date: 2016
ARROW@TUDUBLIN Crucial connections: an exploration of critical thinking and scholarly writing by Roisin Donnelly and Marian FitzmauriceABSTRACT
Academic writing in the context of producing quality research articles is something which all academics engage in and there is evidence of increased attention to supporting the development of the writing and subsequent output of academics and research students. However, while scholarly writing is learnt in complex ways, critical thinking is an intrinsic part of such writing, and is highly valued across all the academic disciplines and indeed is a high priority on both employability and citizenship agendas. However, in practice the teaching of critical thinking is difficult and there is a lack of discussion about what it means within the context of the writing process. This study describes a pedagogic intervention with a group of academic staff to support the participants not only to explore critical thinking in their own writing, but also to consider in depth how they would apply this learning to their work with students in higher education. Within the context of an academic writing module on a postgraduate programme for academic staff in higher education, an action research approach was used with participants to improve their understanding of the role of critical thinking in the academic writing process. The data suggests that the pedagogic intervention resulted in greater confidence in terms of participants’ critical writing skills and also supported them to help their own students in the academic writing process. An exploratory model is proposed for critical academic writing encompassing a series of scaffolded in-class activities, virtual peer learning, and tutor feedback – culminating in the publication and dissemination of individual practice-based educational research.
Publication Date: 2011
Supporting bachelor’s and master’s students’ thesis writing: a rhizoanalysis of academic writing workshops in hybrid learning spaces by Sofia Jusslin and Charlotta HilliABSTRACT
Previous research has suggested that bachelor’s and master’s students seem to experience challenges with thesis writing, and the need for support might be greater when studying at a distance. To further develop supportive practices for thesis writing, this study points to a need to acknowledge materialities and spaces as active and necessary components in thesis writing. The study uses a rhizoanalytical approach that offers possibilities to study learning spaces in higher education and to explore the complexities and multiplicities of supporting thesis writing at a distance. Building on an action research project that developed academic writing workshops to support bachelor’s and master’s students’ thesis writing processes, this study explores the academic writing workshops enacted in hybrid learning spaces (e.g. Zoom, Padlet, and Moodle). The study suggests that various hybrid thresholds make a difference in supporting students’ thesis writing. The hybrid thresholds produce a closeness to the texts in becoming, suggested to be essential for enacting an effective writing pedagogy at a distance; an embodied distance to peers, calling for building personal relationships through other means than face-to-face interaction; and collaborative-and-individual support through (a)synchronous connections, no matter the students’ geographical location. Taken together, the academic writing workshops enacted in hybrid learning spaces can potentially support students’ thesis writing, enabling (un)predictable and spontaneous mo(ve)ments across hybrid thresholds and digital platforms that create a closeness to the theses in becoming.
Publication Date: 2022
How ‘academic’ should academic writing be? Or: why form should follow function by Gert Biesta, Keita Takayama, Margaret Kettle and Stephen HeimansABSTRACT
The writing of this editorial was prompted by a recent experience one of us had at an academic conference in New Zealand. At the conference, a group of doctoral students had organised a session in which they discussed their experiences with the world of academia, particular with regard to writing and, more specifically, with so-called academic writing and academic publishing. In their presentations they provided highly perceptive and also highly critical analyses of the world of academic publishing and the way in which this world had been presented to them.
One thing they showed – and raised concerns about – was how academic publishing is very much skewed towards the English language, which makes anything that is written in another language automatically marginal and of little significance. The other thing they showed was how the rules of academic publishing had been presented to them as a strict, non-negotiable and highly uniform “regime.” In this regime, so they recounted, there are apparently very explicit rules about the proper structure of an academic paper, about the length and content of individual paragraphs, and about the writing style, particularly the importance of using a passive and dispassionate voice.
They found the encounter with this regime frustrating and limiting for their own formation as scholars. They also expressed concerns about the way in which the regime works as a filter through which some voices are heard while others a reduced to and can only exist as “noise” (on the distinction between “speech” and “noise” see Rancière, Citation2004).
Publication Date: 2024
“Why am I paraphrasing?”: Undergraduate ESL writers' engagement with source-based academic writing and reading by Alan Hirvela and Qian DuABSTRACT
One of the most common and vital areas of coverage in second language (L2) writing instruction is writing from sources, that is, the process of reading source text material and transferring content from that reading to writing. Research as well as everyday practice in the classroom has long shown that working with source texts is one of the most challenging of all academic literacy activities for L2 writers. This is particularly true in the domain of paraphrasing, an important and yet complicated device for the treatment of source text material. While the procedures involved in paraphrasing source text material may appear simple, the enactment of those procedures is a complex and often elusive experience for L2 writers. In this article we discuss a study of two mainland Chinese students' engagement with paraphrasing in an undergraduate academic writing course, with a particular focus on their understanding of the purposes and functions of paraphrasing and how such understanding influenced their paraphrasing practices. Our results reveal a multilayered relationship between the students and paraphrasing and contribute to the paraphrasing literature by drawing greater attention to paraphrasing from students' perspectives.
The Academic Writing & Learning Centre (AWLC) at TU Dublin provides a free and friendly support to all our students (undergraduate and postgraduate). At the AWLC, they help you develop as an independent, confident writer in an academic setting. They offer a range of supports such as pre-booked one-to-one appointments, thematic workshops on aspects of academic writing, and a Postgraduate Students Writing Group.
