The document describes a thesis writing workshop series designed by a teacher to help graduate students with various aspects of writing their theses. The teacher took several steps in designing the workshop: 1) Investigating student needs through literature and discussions with students and supervisors; 2) Researching the typical content, organization and linguistic features of thesis chapters through genre analysis; 3) Developing a five-part workshop series covering all thesis chapters; and 4) Adapting the workshops in response to time constraints by focusing on deductive instruction of genre conventions. The workshops aimed to help students understand thesis structure and language to apply to their own work. Feedback indicated the workshops were successful in meeting student needs.

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Thesis Writing
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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Importance of Thesis for Students
• The thesis is of critical importance to students who conduct a
research study for their degree. The thesis is the ‘public
record’ of the research the student conducted for a master or
doctoral degree and it will be examined both internally
(within the university) and externally (by one or more
examiners at a second university).
• The thesis needs to reflect the student’s investment of time
and effort as well as his or her understanding of the literature
on the topic of research and on research methodology in
general.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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Importance of Thesis for Students
• For students doing their masters, the thesis
usually carries more ‘credits’ than any
coursework paper.
• For students doing their doctorates, the thesis is
often the pathway to an academic career.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed
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Context of The Workshop
• Setting: university
• Students:
• students from a range of disciplines including
language and communication, health, business
studies, humanities and art and creative
technologies.
• A mix of native & non-native speakers.
• Full-time & part-time students
• Time: on the weekend.
• one-off workshop
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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Why doing a workshop on ‘writing the
thesis literature review’ ?
• The postgraduate centre had heard from
students and their supervisors that the
Literature chapter was an area of difficulty.
• The research interest of the teacher trying to
help his research students writing their
literature chapters.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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Some Unknowns
• Whether students would be willing to devote part of
their weekend to this subject?
• Which students would be likely to turn up – master
or doctoral students?
• Whether the workshop would attract students from
some specific disciplines rather than others?
• Whether students would find the workshop useful?
• Would the students find the information relevant?
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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The Decisions of The Teacher
• The teacher decided that some form of genre-
based description, using examples from theses
in Applied Linguistics but discussing them with
reference to the other disciplines represented by
students who were likely to attend the workshop,
would be a sensible design option. The genre-
based description would be the ‘common
denominator’ and he would lead discussion
around similarities and differences in the
various disciplines.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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The Result
• The workshop proved highly successful and it
attracted both masters and doctoral students
and students from a range of disciplines. The
evaluation forms completed by students after the
workshop along with informal feedback, which
included comments by students and supervisors,
indicated that students and supervisors
perceived a need for more such workshops.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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What Did this Teacher Do?
1. Investigating Needs
2. Investigating Specialist Discourse
▫ Functions, Contents and Organization.
▫ Linguistic Features.
3. Designing the Workshop Series and Materials.
4. Responding to Difficulties and constraints.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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1. Investigating Needs.
• The students could elect to attend if they wished,
they could elect to attend some sessions rather
than others, they could attend just part of a
session, and it was expected that students would
attend on a ‘as needs’ basis (their needs at the
time).
• Not all students (and supervisors) perceived that
students needed help equally with all sections of
the thesis.
e.g. Some chapters, such as the ‘Discussion of Results’, were widely
seen as problematic whereas others, such as the ‘Introduction’,
were not.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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1. Investigating Needs.
• Range of Types of Difficulties:
▫ Difficulties at the linguistic level for some non-
native speakers.
▫ Difficulties in expressing complex ideas clearly for
a group of native and non-native speakers.
▫ Students had a variety of academic expectations
for the form and content of the various sections of
the thesis.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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1. Investigating Needs.
• Students were undertaking a range of research studies
from different disciplines :
▫ Quantitative or Qualitative.
▫ Descriptive or Experimental.
• The ‘target’ audience for the sessions in this case was not
fixed since the class members were likely to change over
the duration of the workshop series.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed
Thus, there was not one clearly
delineated group of learners whose
‘needs’ would be identified as the
basis of the design of the workshop
series.

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So….?
• The teacher consulted the considerable body of literature on
the topic .
• He also consulted studies investigating students’ difficulties in
writing at the postgraduate level.
• The teacher considered the difficulties his own students had
in understanding the ‘content and organizational
requirements’ for the various sections of the thesis and in
articulating ideas and information using suitably ‘academic’
forms of expression.
• The teacher also examined ‘research methodology’ courses
offered in the local context. The research methodology courses
focused largely on the research process rather than the kind of
micro elements in the sections of the thesis that were to
constitute the major focus of the workshop series.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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2. Investigating Specialist Discourse
• The investigation of discourse was based on a
genre-analytical approach.
• The teacher drew on the genre-based
descriptions of parts of the thesis (for example,
abstract, introduction, literature review,
discussion of results)in the flourishing research
literature and on his own research in the area.
• His research had led him to collect sample
chapters and consider them in terms of their
functions, areas of content, organization and
linguistic features.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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2. Investigating Specialist Discourse
• Functions, content and organization.
e.g. Discussion of Results Chapter.
▫ Function:
Review the aims of the research, the theoretical basis
for the study and the methodological approach and
to discuss the contribution of the study to the field
and to interpret, explain and evaluate the results.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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2. Investigating Specialist Discourse
• Functions, content and organization.
▫ Organization
The organization is described in terms of moves.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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2. Investigating Specialist Discourse
• Linguistic Features.
The aim was to identify salient linguistic features in
the various sections or chapters of the thesis.
e.g. The conviction writers feel towards these claims in
Discussion of Results chapter can be: Assertive or
Tentative. They use ‘hedges’ to express that.
This is genre analysis. It can involve
▫ ‘text analysis’ alone
▫ ‘text analysis’ along with ethnographic inquiry into
how the discourse community that produces the
genre(s) perceives its or their roles, functions and
values.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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2. Investigating Specialist Discourse
• Linguistic Features.
▫ The teacher/course developer conducted
interviews with academic staff members who were
supervising students and the students themselves.
They were asked to discuss samples of the
students’ writing of the discussion of results
sections in order to know their understandings of
the various sections or chapters of the thesis.
The difficulties the supervisors identified revealed
their ‘criteria’ for evaluating writing in this
chapter and thus the values they held for it.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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3.Designing the Workshop Series and Materials.
• A five-part workshop series was devised
(division & order).
• The workshops are held and re-held over the
course of the academic year, generally during the
weekends. It also does not involve course work
or assignments for the students. The series
covers all the parts and chapters of the thesis
(abstract, introduction, literature review, and so
forth). (material)
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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3.Designing the Workshop Series and Materials.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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3.Designing the Workshop Series and Materials.
• The approach to instruction is largely genre-
based. It involves teacher-led description and
discussion and this is interspersed with pair and
small group work in ‘text analysis’ and
discussion tasks. (role of teacher).
• e.g. A session may begin with teacher-led
discussion of the functions of the chapter or part, followed
by an overview of the typical content and organization
involved in it.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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4. Responding to Difficulties and constraints.
The limitations of time have resulted in the teacher opting
for a mainly ‘deductive’ approach.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed
The teacher/course developer in the present case
identified ‘time’ as the particular constraint that hindered
the development of the workshop series. Students feel
that they can give only very limited time to the topic of
‘writing the thesis’.

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4. Responding to Difficulties and constraints.
• The teacher was not able to involve writing tasks in
which students ‘transfer’ what they having been
learning about to writing a segment of their thesis.
• He was not able to assess the learning and he had to
rely on students’ comments for workshop
evaluations
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed
The workshop series is not a ‘course’ (students are not required to do
assignments and are not graded)

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Summary
The workshop series described in this chapter
illustrates a program that not only had to
respond to the possibility that the ‘needs’ of the
students were diverse but also had to respond to
a particularly challenging set of ‘real world’
constraints. the teacher worked to transform
information from a well-established research
literature and his own research in the area into a
‘time effective format’ for teaching purposes.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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:The workshops aimed
• To help students ‘see’ the typical content and
organization of chapters and parts of a thesis, an
underlying structure which all too often is not
apparent to the untrained eye and thus help them in
organizing parts and chapters in their own theses.
• To help them ‘notice’ linguistic features in the parts
and chapters.
• For the possibility that the students can transfer the
‘genre analytical’ skills they develop in the thesis
writing workshop series to other genres they
encounter.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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Summary of What Did this Teacher Do.
1. Investigating Needs
Draw on different sources of information: Discussion with colleagues &
students, literature of the area studied and one’s own experience if
he/she is an insider in that area.
2. Investigating Specialist Discourse
▫ Functions, Contents and Organization.(macro features)
▫ Linguistic Features.(micro features)
3. Designing the Workshop Series and Materials.
4. Responding to Difficulties and constraints.
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed

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Discussion
4. What role might ethnographic inquiry play? Which ‘ethnographic’ means
of inquiry used in the present case could the teacher draw on and can
you suggest any further means to understand the role of a genre in an
unfamiliar discourse community?
By Helen Basturkmen presented by Ola Sayed Ahmed
1. How would you classify the English for Thesis Writing workshop series?
2. Have you had experience in teaching or learning writing using a genre-based
approach and, if so, what do you see as its advantages? Are there
potentially any drawbacks?
3. How much can the ESP teacher be expected to know about a genre unless
she or he is a member of the discourse community that produces and
reproduces the genre? How might the ESP teacher/course developer
investigate the practice and values held for a genre in a discourse
community with which he or she is not familiar?

29. Ola Sayed
Ahmed