writing – PostGraduate and Early Career Researchers' Blog: Scholarly Conversations

19th April 20223rd February 2022

Finding Your Space

‘There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.’

Some people can write anywhere, in coffee shops, in hotel reception rooms, in parks on a sunny day, or wherever they find themselves in their free time. However, this kind of freedom is not universal, and many people find themselves restrained by their emotional and occupational responsibilities and a lack of physical space.

I have been a better writer since I have had an area to write and keep my writing tools, such as my books, notepads, computer (with two screens), printer, large desk, and comfy chair. These are all things that I find are necessary for me to get anything worth reading written. However, I have only had this space since one of my children moved out. Before then, I would set up my computer wherever I could, in the kitchen, in the garden, on the sofa. The problem was that people would be in and out, the television would come on, the door would ring, and my thoughts and writing would be continually interrupted. Being a writing nomad led me to waste precious time. I was constantly losing things, and the disturbances would make me lose my thread and procrastinate. I would usually have to go back to the beginning and start again. Another, probably more serious, issue of not having a proper place to write was that the inadequate seating gave me back problems. Nowadays, I have an ergonomic writing chair, but alas, the damage is done, and so I urge you younger academics not to take your health for granted.

Unfortunately, it is not easy to find a solution to this issue. Years ago, I cleared out a tiny store-room/cupboard and used that, but the lack of windows gave me a headache. I know other people who have done the same thing. Rowena Murray suggests that it might be more productive learning to write at the doctor’s, dentist’s, on a coffee or lunch break and so on. Tara Brabazon agrees that we do not need expensive equipment, but we do need our own space. Virginia Woolf highlighted this issue in 1935 with her iconic essay A Room of One’s Own, which pointed out the difficulties many women had both metaphorically and physically relating to the lack of independence and physical space. Society has changed since then, but privacy is still an issue for many people.

My question is, how and where do other people write? How many people can genuinely compose their thoughts and create wherever they find themselves? It would be great if other people could share their ideas and experience on this matter.

Dr Lesley Fearn @lesleyfearn

I recently achieved my EdD regarding learning and teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) using online community projects in secondary schools. This interest stems from more than thirty years of experience teaching English (as a Foreign Language) and English literature in state schools in the south of Italy. During this time, I have continually experimented with new approaches and techniques, especially with technology, to motivate students in their schooling. Other areas of interest include Fine Art and English literature that I studied as a BA and MA. As far as research is concerned, I am particularly interested in Action Research and sociocultural paradigms.

19th February 202222nd September 2021

Talking about your research – your take away message

Talking about your research

As a PG researcher, you will inevitably have to give presentations on your research. An opportunity came up in July for me to do just that with an international group of doctoral students as an audience. Hosted by Liverpool John Moores Centre for Educational Research, I recommend you take a look.

Although I had only just completed my 1^st year and so had not yet carried out any research, I was still excited to share my many ideas and thoughts.

This was the problem! How to condense a complex subject I really care about so that I can share something interesting with people who nothing about my topic or context. In about 15/20 minutes, when I had enough trouble cutting my summative assessment on the subject down to 10,000 words.

Scene setting

I needed to introduce myself and provide enough about my context that the audience could appreciate the situation. This was the (relatively!) easy part; a bit about me and my background and then linking into the work I am researching with a few headline statistics showing its scope and scale.

Narrowing the focus

Then came the hard part; deciding what to focus on – what the simple “message” was that I wanted the audience to take away with them. I decided at this early stage my message should be

I am researching if we can use predictive analytics in Toastmasters.

We have all sat through presentations or speeches where the focus is unclear because the speaker wants to tell you everything or doesn’t really have a clear idea what their message should be. My focus was so that if someone in the audience was asked, “what was that talk about?” they could respond with that one simple message.

Content

I decided that I would use a piece of work I had recently done as the basis for my presentation. My summative assessment began with a literature review and ended with my research questions.

Constructing the narrative

Clearly, a well-constructed, academic literature review is too complex to get across in a presentation, but this is not my intention. In my 15/20 minute presentation I just want to get across my one simple message.

I approached this by working backwards.

What do you want the audience to know?
- I am researching PA in Toastmasters
How do you get them to that conclusion?
- Show how my journey led me there
What were the key steps/milestones?
- The research gaps I found
How did I find these?
- Key findings/discoveries (studies) that led me there

Remember less is more! You are just trying to get your audience to remember your one message. Do not overcomplicate as they won’t be able to process it.

If you were asked to present on your research tomorrow, what would your central message be?

You can see a recorded version of my presentation here.

Written by

Selina Griffin @Psylina

After completing my BA (in Classics) in the usual way at a bricks and mortar university, I discovered the Open University and completed an MA. Years later after some soul-searching, I switched fields and completed an MA in Online and Distance Education which has led to me pursuing my EdD in the realm of learning analytics. I am fortunate enough to now also work for the Open University. I also have my own personal blog where I discuss my research, running and my cat @MrGrebo

30th January 202222nd September 2021

Start writing and hope to get it right!

‘For it is not enough to know what we ought to say; we must also say it as we ought’

(Aristotle, Rhetoric, 350 B.C.E.)

During our postgraduate studies, we are encouraged to use formal prose distinct to each research community. It takes us the whole of our studies to find our academic voice and the ‘right tone’ to communicate it. This process can be facilitated by using online aids such as the academic phrasebook or purchasing one of the many addons such as REF-N-WRITE or Grammarly.

However, writing a blog post is different again. Experienced bloggers say it is liberating, but to a novice like myself, who is used to the safe and familiar ‘formal’, it is scary. This anxiety could be because there seems to be considerable confusion on what they are. Blogs are often thought of as online diaries or journals, but Prof. Dunleavy points out that this is no longer the case. He explains that they can be loosely categorised into two basic kinds: those run by a single person and those by a small group, as in this blog.

Among their many advantages, blogs are potentially powerful and immediate means of sharing ideas with an academic tone distinctive to the blogger and has its own rules. But what are those rules? How do you write creatively in a formal way that is necessary for academic blogs? There are no phrasebooks or supplements that can solve this issue. Unable to find any satisfying literature on the subject, I followed the same path as I always do:

Listen to the experts: Stephen King’s advises abundant reading and writing, so I have read other people’s academic blogs. My favourites are The Thesis Whisperer and Writing for Research, but there are many more and easy to find by running a website search;
Watch seminars by experts on blogging (while doing domestic chores such as cooking and ironing) after searching for the bloggers whose blogs I admired. For example, Professor Inger Mewburn and Dunleavy, and there are many others.

However, there is nothing left to do at a certain point but start writing and hope you get it right.

Finally, and regarding the quote by Aristotle, to write anything well, it is not enough to have something to say or even the skill with which to say it. We need to know the social norms of the community in which we find ourselves. There are no set rules in academic blogs, but I believe that the character and the language still need to be relevant. For this reason, it would be great if you could let us know your experience and beliefs concerning what they should look like and how they should feel.

Dr Lesley Fearn @lesleyfearn

I recently achieved my EdD regarding learning and teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) using online community projects in secondary schools. This interest stems from more than thirty years of experience teaching English (as a Foreign Language) and English literature in state schools in the south of Italy. During this time, I have continually experimented with new approaches and techniques, especially with technology, to motivate students in their schooling. Other areas of interest include Fine Art and English literature that I studied as a BA and MA. As far as research is concerned, I am particularly interested in Action Research and sociocultural paradigms.