Shut up and write! Some surprising uses of cafes and crowds in doctoral writing

This chapter discusses a ‘writing movement’, which is currently occurring in various parts of Australia through the support of social media. A concept emerging from the café scene in San Francisco, ‘Shut Up and Write!’ is a meetup group that brings writers together at a specific time and place to write side by side, thus making writing practice, social. This concept has been applied to the academic environment and our case-study explores the positive outcomes in two locations: RMIT University and Queensland University of Technology. This informal learning practice can be implemented to assist research students in developing academic skills.

'What say you to [this] book? Is it yours?'::Oral and Collaborative Narrative Trajectories in the Mediated Writings of Anna Trapnel

This article argues that, when a printed page is initially orally generated and then transcribed, either at the time or on a subsequent occasion by a listener or an interlocutor, there are important critical implications for the “I” of the account. It takes as a case study Anna Trapnel's first published works. Appearing within a few weeks of each other in 1654, The Cry of a Stone and Strange and Wonderful News are both mediated texts, large parts of which depend on the agency of a relater. The article begins by examining the textual traces of the relater, arguing for the centrality of his role and other agencies in the shaping of the works which bear Trapnel's name. Situating itself in relation to a current orientation in feminist autobiographical theory that places emphasis on the external requirement to narrate one's life, rather than on the spontaneous production of autobiography by an inner self, the article emphasizes notions of coaxing, witnessing and intersubjectivity to point up an appreciation of women's life writing as a species of cultural production in which various historical actors—male and female—participate. This dialogic process, which persists into the afterlife of transcription, owes part of its genesis to the political vagaries of 1654 and precipitates two contrasting—but equally “authentic”—versions of Trapnel's life and self. Mapping this movement, discussion concentrates on the ways in which a critical confrontation with women's oral narrative is as much an activity of disentangling as it is of reconstructing, an activity which is revealing of the extent to which a spectrum of social and cultural networks participates in and facilitates the female writing act.

Atlas of European Historiography: The Making of a Profession, 1800-2005 (Writing the Nation)

The collection of the data for this volume formed part of the work of the European Science Foundation project on Writing National Histories. I was a member of the Research Team (1) which produced the volume. I also wrote two contributions for the Atlas. I collected the data and wrote the section on academic historians in Ireland. I also wrote a synthesis of the data on academic women historians in Europe, 1815-2005.

Student perceptions of the writing process

Based on the critical research paradigm and using a mix of methodologies, this study examined student perceptions of the process approach used to teach writing. A class of 19 ESL students in an academic writing class at a small university paliicipated in the study. As collaborators in the study, they assessed their personality types using the PET Type Check (Crantoll & Knoop, 1995) and tlleir learning styles using Kolb'sLearning Styles Inventory (1976). Interviews, classroom observations, and journals provided a data base for case studies llilQ teacher reflection. Results indicated that students perceived the prewriting step of brainstonning and peer review as most useful. Student perceptions of the tasks and course and implications for theory and practice are examined.

Hammering the prose: an academic guide to writing essays

This guide covers how to structure your essay and develop an argument. It also gives advice on suitable academic writing styles, and how to go about the all important editing of your work.

Evolution and everging trends of university writing groups

Writing groups have developed in universities to assist academics to publish. Knowledge of these groups and their successes and challenges is valuable, and informs the wider academic writing community. However there is a paucity of research in this support area. This article will discuss writing groups from two other universities and report on the evolution of our writing group over a three-year period. It will then compare the characteristics of the three in terms of publishing acumen, collegiality, leadership and affect, and discuss emerging trends.

The structure of academic prose : intercultural and interdisciplinry dimensions

In the contemporary world of increasing internationalisation of scholarship the ability to communicate in the “lingua franca” of global research communities and familiarity with relevant academic genres is crucial to attaining research visibility in the academy. Native English language competency does not guarantee the possession of knowledge and skills about how to manipulate the language structure of academic genres to produce the kind of scholarly prose acceptable in the community of readers. This task is even more challenging to Non-NESB academic writers, mainly because the purpose of academic writing is both informative and rhetorical, and the information packaging strategies are likely to be discipline and culture bound.
Communication in professional academic culture is carried out and codified by selected genre categories which function as the media for scholarly discussions. This presentation focuses on the structure of a research paper, the most widely established form of presenting academic research. With an increasing internationalisation of scholarship, the schema of a research paper faces two potentially conflicting sets of forces. At one end are the forces of established conventions of the rhetorical pattern of research papers which are modelled on the structure of an “Anglo” research paper. On the other are the forces of norms for text construction of the author’s culture of socialization.

I discuss analytical approaches to the examination of the relational organisation of this genre exploring both intercultural and interdisciplinary dimensions. I examine paratactic and hypotactic configurations of the structure of research paper, providing examples of relational strategies utilised by native and no-native English speaker writers representing Anglo and non-Anglo discourse communities.

Writing groups, change and academic identity: research development as local practice

The development of the research potential of university staff has been given less attention than many other aspects of professional development, particularly teaching development. Yet there is an important need for the development of staff in the research role in the light of growth of higher education and changes to the organisation of the sector in many countries. This article examines one strategy for research development: the use of writing groups. It argues that writing is best seen as a starting point, rather than an endpoint, of the research process and hence that fostering academic writing is a useful place to do research development work. The article provides details of the use of a number of writing groups over three years in a particular faculty and explores the responses of leaders and participants. It identifies factors important in the use of this strategy and focuses on the contextual conditions required for initiatives of this kind to be effectively implemented.

A escrita do texto acadêmico na graduação: modos de utilização de conceitos teóricos de uma área de conhecimento

In this study we have developed a discussion about academic text production in the undergraduate course of Literature and Languages. Specifically, we are going to analyze the monographic text writing in order to verify the meaning effects created from the ways of showing other s discourses that constitute a written production. As a means to do that, we are going to answer the following question: How does a young researcher make use of a theory in order to be part of a particular scientific community? We aim to: 1) analyze the linguistic resources, like quotations and signs of cohesion that demonstrate the other s voice presence in academic writing; 2) observe the meaning effects produced through the ways that the one who writes shows the other s voice in the written text. Firstly, we have selected 23 (twentythree) monographs produced in the last five years by students from a Literature and Languages undergraduate course in a determined public university. However, in this study, we have analyzed just 02 (two) different monographic texts. To develop such an investigation, we have inquired Kuhn s concept of science, which shows the existence of different meanings of science production in the course of the centuries. It allows us to define academic writing as science production that develops and contributes to knowledge production. With the purpose of restricting the meaning of writing conception, we have relied on Coracini, who assumes that all writing production is the registration of the self, in other words, writing comes from the subject s intervention, it is to say that only an imposition of the self guarantees the subject as author of what he writes. We have as theoretical basis the following concepts: 1-) Authier-Revus s enunciative heterogeneity, that allowed us to analyze the written marks of the other in the monographic writing; 2-) Pêcheux s reformulation-paraphrase and Orlandi s polysemy and paraphrase, concepts that present notions of productivity and creativity as ways of meaning production, and allows us to observe how the process of language production in academic writing is established; 3-) Rossi-Landi s concept of exchange-value and use-value, which consider language as a linguistic work, allowing us to verify the differences between use and social functionality in a determined theory; and 4-) Possenti s notion of authorship indicia, with which we have identified attitudes that make the one who writes author of his own text. We have verified that writing characterized for repetition and reproduction may develop a meaning effect that constructs the idea that writing production promotes an author, a concept or a theory. We have also realized that a written text that restricts itself to reproduce other authors discourses and does not articulate a theory with data analysis or with work methodology, when evaluated is approved and legitimates itself as scientific production. That demonstrates the existence of academic productions that do not develop any functionality of the employed theory. The text works as a means to promote its theoretical concepts, and theory. It is to say that the theoretical foundantion, which usually is a way to argue and sustain scientific production, does not have any function. Thus, we consider that the way someone shows the other s discourse in academic writing may work as a way to underline what the other asserts to the detriment of the researcher s words. This fact allows us to comprehend that a way of writing may evidence a meaning effect of the author s, theory s or theoretical concepts promotion

Does hope matter? The influence of dispositional hope on persistence in a developmental writing course

The purpose of this study was to determine hope’s unique role, if any, in predicting persistence in a developmental writing course. Perceived academic self-efficacy was also included as a variable of interest for comparison because self-efficacy has been more widely studied than hope in terms of its non-cognitive role in predicting academic outcomes. A significant body of research indicates that self-efficacy influences academic motivation to persist and academic performance. Hope, however, is an emerging psychological construct in the study of non-cognitive factors that influence college outcomes and warrants further exploration in higher education. This study examined the predictive value of hope and self-efficacy on persistence in a developmental writing course. The research sample was obtained from a community college in the southeastern United States. Participants were 238 students enrolled in developmental writing courses during their first year of college. Participants were given a questionnaire that included measures for perceived academic self-efficacy and hope. The self-efficacy scale asked participants to self-report on their beliefs about how they cope with different academic tasks in order to be successful. The hope scale asked students to self-report on their beliefs about their capability to initiate action towards a goal (“agency”) and create a plan to attain these goals (“pathways”). This study utilized a correlational research design. A statistical association was estimated between hope and self-efficacy as well as the unique variance contributed by each on course persistence. Correlational analysis confirmed a significant relationship between hope and perceived academic self-efficacy, and a Fisher’s z-transformation confirmed a stronger relationship between the agency component of hope and perceived academic self-efficacy than for the pathways component. A series of multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess if (a) perceived self-efficacy and hope predict course persistence, (b) hope independent of self-efficacy predicts course persistence, and (c) if including the interaction of perceived self-efficacy and hope predicts course persistence. It was found that hope was only significant independent of self-efficacy. Some implications for future research are drawn for those who lead and coordinate academic support initiatives in student and academic affairs.

The use of computer graphic organizers for narrative writing by elementary school students with Specific Learning Disabilities

Writing is an academic skill critical to students in today's schools as it serves as a predominant means for demonstrating knowledge during school years (Graham, 2008). However, for many students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD), learning to write is a challenging, complex process (Lane, Graham, Harris, & Weisenbach, 2006). Students SLD have substantial writing challenges related to the nature of their disability (Mayes & Calhoun, 2005). ^ This study investigated the effects of computer graphic organizer software on the narrative writing compositions of four, fourth- and fifth-grade, elementary-level boys with SLD. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to explore the effects of the computer graphic organizer software on four dependent variables: total number of words, total planning time, number of common story elements, and overall organization. ^ Prior to baseline, participants were taught the fundamentals of narrative writing. Throughout baseline and intervention, participants were read a narrative writing prompt and were allowed up to 10 minutes to plan their writing, followed by 15 minutes for writing, and 5 minutes of editing. During baseline, all planning was done using paper and pencil. During intervention, planning was done on the computer using a graphic organizer developed from the software program Kidspiration 3.0 (2011). All compositions were written and editing was done using paper and pencil during baseline and intervention. ^ The results of this study indicated that to varying degrees computer graphic organizers had a positive effect on the narrative writing abilities of elementary aged students with SLD. Participants wrote more words (from 54.74 to 96.60 more), planned for longer periods of time (from 4.50 to 9.50 more minutes), and included more story elements in their compositions (from 2.00 to 5.10 more out of a possible 6). There were nominal to no improvements in overall organization across the 4 participants. ^ The results suggest that teachers of students with SLD should considering use computer graphic organizers in their narrative writing instruction, perhaps in conjunction with remedial writing strategies. Future investigations can include other types of writing genres, other stages of writing, participants with varied demographics and their use combined with remedial writing instruction. ^

Does Hope Matter? The Influence of Dispositional Hope on Persistence in a Developmental Writing Course

The purpose of this study was to determine hope’s unique role, if any, in predicting persistence in a developmental writing course. Perceived academic self-efficacy was also included as a variable of interest for comparison because self-efficacy has been more widely studied than hope in terms of its non-cognitive role in predicting academic outcomes. A significant body of research indicates that self-efficacy influences academic motivation to persist and academic performance. Hope, however, is an emerging psychological construct in the study of non-cognitive factors that influence college outcomes and warrants further exploration in higher education. This study examined the predictive value of hope and self-efficacy on persistence in a developmental writing course. The research sample was obtained from a community college in the southeastern United States. Participants were 238 students enrolled in developmental writing courses during their first year of college. Participants were given a questionnaire that included measures for perceived academic self-efficacy and hope. The self-efficacy scale asked participants to self-report on their beliefs about how they cope with different academic tasks in order to be successful. The hope scale asked students to self-report on their beliefs about their capability to initiate action towards a goal (“agency”) and create a plan to attain these goals (“pathways”). This study utilized a correlational research design. A statistical association was estimated between hope and self-efficacy as well as the unique variance contributed by each on course persistence. Correlational analysis confirmed a significant relationship between hope and perceived academic self-efficacy, and a Fisher’s z-transformation confirmed a stronger relationship between the agency component of hope and perceived academic self-efficacy than for the pathways component. A series of multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess if (a) perceived self-efficacy and hope predict course persistence, (b) hope independent of self-efficacy predicts course persistence, and (c) if including the interaction of perceived self-efficacy and hope predicts course persistence. It was found that hope was only significant independent of self-efficacy. Some implications for future research are drawn for those who lead and coordinate academic support initiatives in student and academic affairs.

On this Writing : An Autotheoretic Account

An invited chapter that provides an autobiographical account of 'critical incidents' in becoming an academic writer.