Talk by Pat Thomson - Nottingham University - about: What help do doctoral students need to write? Doctoral researchers face range of common difficulties in working with literatures, establishing writing routines and strategies, writing their texts. Many also experience serial crises of confidence and authority. I will discuss each of these in turn, considering what kinds of supports are useful for them, drawing on a range of international initiatives and web-based resources.

1. what writing help do doctoral
researchers need?
pat thomson

2. scholarly practices
• finding the reading
• doing and making
sense of the reading
• writing along the way
• writing for
publication
• coping with the
process
• writing and
constructing the final
text moving beyond gutenberg

3. finding the reading: how to compile the “collective and inner library”?
Wilfredo Prieto

4. five key
practices:
searching
aka
googling
scanning
and
skimming
sorting
mapping
close
reading

5. Louis Jover
recording reading
what software?
making connections
what software?
writing about the
reading
what software?

6. writing along the way
• writing, along with talking,
is the way in which
doctoral researchers make
sense of their work and
communicate their sense-
making to their supervisors
• but they also need to learn
the craft of academic
writing- multiple genres,
audiences – and what is
the expected ‘standard’

7. stuck places (with dragons)
• sorting out the research question
• turning the literature work into an argument to support the
research
• making sense of the data
• organising the structure of the thesis

8. writing for publication
• understanding the
process
• choosing the
journal
• understanding and
mastering the
genre
• handling the
feedback

9. • a publication broker can support the process of
choice of journal, writing and reviewer feedback
• writing groups can support the writing and
rewriting
• some textual and online resources can be helpful

10. text work/identity work can produce profound
emotions. these can seriously impede progress

11. Matthew Grabelsky
understanding the genre of
the final text can be a
problem
simply looking at existing
theses isn’t necessarily
helpful
finding the big idea is often
hard
sorting out the structure
can also be tricky

13. Ione Citrone
• a partnership with supervisors and research educators
• a material place for social encounter and connection
• resources that are clearly signposted
• responsive to needs and crises, actively seeking contact
LIBRARY

14. Harriet Backer
patricia.thomson@
nottingham.ac.uk
patthomson.net
Patter blog
@ThomsonPat