Academic writing and Academic writing and publishing workshoppublishing workshop

Barbara Kamler

Pat Thomson

Our goals for the workshopOur goals for the workshop

• The workshop aims to: – develop a conceptual framework for

academic writing and publishing– explore the difficulties for early career

researchers of assuming an authoritative and critical stance

– identify common writing problems in abstracts and journal articles

– develop a publishing plan

Theoretical framework• Research as writing

• Scholarly writing as text work/identity work

• Scholarly writing as discursive social practice

Research as writing

• Researchers write all the time – writing is the means through which we work on and work out our ideas. Research is writing (Richardson)

• We don’t just ‘write up’ – we have not found a transparent truth which we then just put into words

• Writing is a representation – we make choices, and what we choose is a situated approximation

• Writing produces a text – it can be read in multiple ways, including by the ‘writer’. Writing along the way can thus assist reflexivity

• But, as writers, we can make our texts more ’readerly or writerly’

Taking on a scholarly identity

• There are two sides to writing a journal article– Knowing the genres, conventions and textual practices, the text

work– Assuming an ‘expert’ stance, the identity work

• The practices of writing produce a representation of the scholar and her scholarly practice

• The struggle with scholarly writing is linked to the difficulty of negotiating text work and identity work simultaneously – while at the same time explicating and positioning the research

• The challenge is to learn to write with authority for and in a field of expert others who judge and evaluate that writing

• The journal is a site where the e c researcher enters occupied territory. She must define herself and her work in relation to others who are already in the field

Becoming a scholar

• Holland and colleagues ( 1998) argue that identity formation occurs in a discourse community of practice - a ‘figured world’. They say “The self is a position from which meaning is made, a position that is ‘addressed’ by and ‘answers’ others and the ‘world’ ( the physical and cultural environment). In answering ( which is the stuff of existence) the self ‘authors’ the world - including itself and others” (p.173)

• They argue that identity formation goes through four ‘authoring’ stages:– Identity devaluation, in which a new understanding of self

develops at the expense of an old one– Personalisation of the identity, through identification with key

figures– Emotional attachment to the new identity– Identity reconstitution, through exorcising negative practices

• This cycle is continuous. Identity/ies is/are always in formation• Holland, D., Lachicotte, W., Skinner, D. and Cain, C (1998) Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Cambridge,

Mass: Harvard University Press

Identity struggles: Crowded by the literature

• According to Belsey (2002:57), Jaques Lacan reinterpreted Freud in the light of Levi-Strauss and Saussure- 'to delineate a subject was itself the location of a difference'. Belsey goes on to explain that, for Lacan, the human being is 'an organism in culture'. According to Lacan, speech was central to psycho-analytic practice. He argued that during the first two months of life a child's emergent sense of self was formed in relation subjects, capable of signifying. Lacan calls this the 'Otherness of language'. 'The big other', states Belsey, 'is there before we are, exists outside us and does not belong to us'. The early writing of Barthes, says Norris (1982:8), was aimed at a full-scale science of the text, modelled on the linguistics of Saussure and the structural anthropology of Levi-Strauss. In 'Elements of Semiology' (1967), Barthes takes the view of structuralism as a kind of 'mastercode' capable of providing higher- level understanding.

Crowded by the literature

• We characterise Vera’s text as ‘crowded’ by the literature (Becker 1986:149). She is traversing complex theoretical terrain, but seems to be ‘drowning’ in the detail. She stands as an outsider, piling up layers of ‘who said what about what’ as a strategy for highlighting key theoretical ideas.

• ‘According to Belsey (2002:p57), Jaques Lacan reinterpreted Freud in the light of Levi-Strauss and Saussure…; The early writing of Barthes, says Norris; Culler states that Barthes…

• But how do these ideas inform her study? And are any ideas more important than others?

Identity struggles: He said, she said• Mortimore (1998) also contributes to the school

effectiveness research agenda. He explains that school effectiveness researchers aim to ascertain whether differential resources, processes and organizational differences affect student performance and if so, how? He is also of the view that school effectiveness researchers seek reliable and appropriate ways to measure school quality. Hopkins (2001) suggests that one of the earliest studies that were done compared the effectiveness of some secondary schools on a range of student outcome measures. Reynolds and Cuttance (1992) also point out that the effective schools research entitled ‘Fifteen Thousand Hours” characterised school efficiency factors as varied in the degree of academic emphasis, teacher’s action in lessons, the availability of resources, rewards... They emphasize that effective school researchers claim that there are significant differences between schools on a number of different student outcomes after full account has been taken of pupil’s previous learning history and family background. Hargreaves and Hopkins (1991) also endorse this view by stating…

• We characterise Geraldine’s text as ‘he said, she said.’ Every sentence begins by naming the researcher followed by a fairly neutral verb, eg ‘Mortimer also contributes’, ‘Hopkins suggests’, ‘Reynolds and Cuttance also point out’, ‘Hargreaves and Hopkins also endorse.’

• Syntactically, the lack of connection between sentences makes this more like a list, a summary of ideas. The writer piles up one study after another, but there is no so what? There is NO evaluative stance.

Identity struggles: Standing outside the field as novice

(1) Deal and Peterson (1994) argue very succinctly that leadership itself is a paradox as it involves working with so many participants. I could not agree more when I consider leadership in inclusive schools.

(2) To help us explore this concept a little further, I particularly like the following quotation:

‘Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary’ (Niebuhr, 1994).

• Here the writing ends up sounding somewhat naïve. It constructs a novice researcher, writing about her experience and preferences as an

individual, rather than as a participant in a scholarly community

Identity struggles: Too much ‘hands on hips’

• In his discussion of self-writing, Foucault agrees with me when he says: ‘These practices are nevertheless not something that the individual invents by himself. They are patterns that he finds in his culture and which are proposed, suggested and imposed on him by his culture, his society and his social group.’ (Foucault 1998:11)

• The me suggests that Foucault, were he alive, is not only reading the doctoral candidate’s work, but is confirming its worth. It is fairly humorous for us to think of Foucault agreeing with Charles, but not for Charles.

• This is not self-aggrandisement, but rather Charles asserting his authority, without knowing how to manage his position.

• Such textual overconfidence skews power relations to the extreme and is just as problematic for creating a credible doctoral text as excessive diffidence.

• In charge of the literature: taking ‘a hands- on-hips’ stance and handling complex ideas with facility

• The question of whether senior bureaucrats play an active role in policy development or if their influence is more limited – even an impediment to the will of elected ministers, is contested. There seems to be a pervasive view that ministers set the policy agenda of government with the bureaucracy represented as a ‘necessary evil’ for enacting policy. Meanwhile, there is literature that positions the bureaucracy more favourably, even suggesting a more authoritative role in policy development. But, there appears to be no concurrence on the extent of involvement. While many scholars agree that bureaucrats, either actively or tacitly, do play an important role in policy development, it is safe to say that this does not represent the consensus view. (Levin, 2002; Stone, 2002; Birkland, 2001; Lynn, 1996; Majone, 1989; Goodsell,1985).

• The casting of politicians as policy leader assumes that a public servant, senior or otherwise is a ‘servant’ to the public, but more to the point, a servant to the minister. Some see senior public servants as instruments of political processes but with a severely limited role in policy formulation (Wilson, 1999). This theoretical orientation is consistent with new corporate management ideologies that are believed to foster a stronger separation between public administration and politics but, as I will argue, do more to motivate bureaucrats to seek a more direct role in government policy. As Cohn (1997) suggests, under such arrangements ministers rely on deputies and other senior administrators to provide direction and advice on policy, but the actual decisions are made at a political level. In framing policy development in this way, there is some recognition of the role of the permanent public service, to be sure, but it is one of implementation, stopping short of policy formulation.

• We characterise Elizabeth’s’ text as ‘in charge of the literatures.’ While she highlights what other scholars have said, she frames her discussion as a debate –a set of ideas in competition with one another. This allows her to make ideas central – rather than other researchers – and to take the lead in guiding the reader through the different positions in the field. She uses evaluative language to sort and clarify positions: ‘There seems to be a pervasive view; ‘there is literature that positions the bureaucracy more favourably’; ‘there appears to be no concurrence.’ She also makes links to broader discourses: ‘This theoretical orientation is consistent with new corporate management ideologies...’ and to her own argument: ‘...as I will argue, do more to motivate bureaucrats to seek a more direct role in government policy.’

Identity/ies are always formed in specific discursive communities of practice

Text

Layer 1

Layer 2

Layer 3

Discourse practice

Process of production and interpretation

Sociocultural practice

Fairclough’s 3 dimensional model of discourse

break

Outline of segment 2

• Abstracts as academic identity work• How to write an effective abstract:

addressing the so what/now what? • Questions to guide abstract writing• Strategy: From conference papers to

articles or articles to conference papers?

Writing abstracts (TINY TEXTS)

• Writing abstracts for academic journals is not just a tiresome necessity of academic life, BUT an excellent way to learn how to write persuasively.

• Abstracts highlight issues of authority and identity and are a rich site for textwork/identity work.

• We call abstracts ‘tiny’ texts because they compress the rhetorical act of arguing into a small textual space BUT they are ‘large’ in the pedagogical work they can accomplish.

• Kamler, B. & Thomson, P. (2006) Helping doctoral students write: Pedagogies for supervision, p. 85-86.

• There is no set formula for writing abstracts. However, we suggest (Kamler & Thomson, 2004) there is an informal and not necessarily effective set of abstract formulae out in the field. While some journals and conferences specify a formula, many don’t. In some fields there is a de facto set formula for abstracts and what writers do is a kind of fill-in-the-blanks in a relatively unthinking way (this is a layer 3 convention).

• We have come up with a strategy to accomplish the text work/identity work of abstract writing that is not blindly formulaic!

• We analyse abstracts in order to arrive at three categories of moves.

Rubric for analysing abstracts

• the first line of each abstract• whether the abstract was a summary report or an

argument or some kind of blend• how the researcher was represented in the text• how the research was located (or not) in a wider field

of scholarship, practice, debates

• Kamler, B. & Thomson, P. (2004) Driven to abstraction: Doctoral supervision and writing pedagogies. Teaching in Higher Education, 9 (2) 195-209.

The representation of the researcher as ‘this article’ or ‘this paper’

• This article focuses on secondary school departments and argues that the current approaches to school improvement do not adequately reflect or incorporate the department level. Drawing upon empirical evidence from two evaluative studies, the article highlights the processes that contribute to improved departmental performance and subsequently, to school and classroom improvement. The article concludes by suggesting that the department is an important 'missing link' in school improvement theory and practice. (British Educational Research Journal, Harris 2001)

The absence of the researcher through the passive verb form

A new theory of school effectiveness and improvement is outlined, based on the master concepts of intellectual capital, social capital and leverage, linked with the conventional concept of institutional outputs. Each master concept is defined in terms of two subsidiary concepts. Twelve specifically educational concepts are set within this framework to provide the theory. It is proposed that, through a simplified model, the range and fertility of the theory can be exemplified and tested in three specific cases-the changing nature of school effectiveness and improvement in knowledge economies, citizenship education and teacher effectiveness. (British Educational Research Journal, Hargreaves 2001)

The representation of the researcher as ‘I’

• Participatory research methods are often assumed to alter the roles, relationships and responsibilities of researchers and participants in research projects reframing research as collaborative inquiry. In my own research on urban schooling, whenever possible, I have attempted to craft research projects with and for the participants in the project, rather than conducting research on them. For instance, in order to document urban adolescents’ perspectives on their schooling, I asked high school students to join research projects as co-researchers. I learned that the core principles of participatory research become complicated and, at times, problematic when put into practice with adolescents. In this article, I describe three of the collaborative relationships I developed with high school students in a single research project. I use this work with adolescents to call for the reconsideration of conventional notions of collaboration, participation, action and representation in participatory research. (Australian Journal of Educational Research, Schultz 2001)

The abstract as identity work: Alice (1)

In this article I argue that careful analysis of very young children’s use of ICT and other technologies suggests that both the dominance of print in emergent literacy education, and school expectations of the literacy achievements of children prior to formal schooling, may require review.

The abstract as identity work: Alice (2)

In this paper I explore how three young boys in the period of pre-school transition use ICT and other technologies. I suggest that neither the dominance of print in emergent literacy education, nor school expectations of the literacy achievements of children prior to formal schooling, attend to the versatility with literacy technologies demonstrated by these very young children and that this failure could inhibit their continuing literacy development both in ICTs and print.

The abstract as identity work: Alice (3)

Recent investigations of early and emergent literacy seriously underestimate young children’s capacity to use ICTs and other technologies in becoming literate, and print continues to be privileged as the dominant literacy for young children. In this article I examine how three young boys used ICT in the period of pre-school transition and highlight the complexity of their multimodal reading and writing practices. I argue that unless schools attend to young children’s versatility with literacy technologies, this failure could inhibit their continuing literacy development both in ICTs and print.

Revising abstracts: Kirsten draft 1

This study examines the broader contexts shaping homework, the

nature and underlying purposes of tasks children bring from school

for completion at home, the impact of homework on families, and the

kinds of parental labour performed in homes where homework is

completed. This paper presents the findings of a study which

reconceptualizes homework as a ‘field of practice’ and uses feminist

ethnographic research methodology to develop a Bourdieuian

analysis of parental management of homework across

socioeconomically diverse communities.

Revising abstracts: Kirsten draft 2

This paper reports on a feminist, ethnographic study of homework which examines the nature and purposes of the homework tasks children complete at home, the impact of homework on families, and the kinds of parental labour performed. It reconceptualizes homework as a ‘field of practice’ and develops a Bourdieuian analysis of parental management of homework across three socioeconomically diverse communities. The paper argues that the work of the home is increasingly complex and that the labour performed by parents is misunderstood and devalued in policies which shape homework.

Abstract: McLeod AARE 2003 Shaping the self through psychotherapeutic means: gender and

cross-generational perspectives

This paper explores psychotherapeutic themes and modes of thought emerging in interviews with mothers and daughters participating in a cross-generational study of young women ‘on the margins’. The focus of the discussion is two-fold. First it discusses current theoretical debates concerning the ascendancy of psychotherapeutic modes of constituting the self, and argues that we require closer attention to the gendered and differentiated ways in which these are registered and articulated. Second, through cross-generational comparisons, it considers the different, and common, ways in which three mother and daughter pairs draw upon a repertoire of psychotherapeutic discourses to represent their relation to schooling, self, family, and work. It concludes with some speculative observations about the significance of attending to the psychotherapeutic turn for understanding contemporary femininity.

Julie’s working formula

• Locate: specific paper in relation to larger project/debates/issues

• Colonise: identify two (or three) particular questions/issues/kinds of problems that the paper will take forward/ explore/examine

• Direct: Open out the argument, analysis, speculations.. ‘Overall’,’ In particular’…..

How did that work?

LOCATE

This paper explores psychotherapeutic themes ___.emerging in interviews______in a cross-generational study.

COLONISE

The focus __is two-fold. First it discusses _____and argues that we require ______. Second, through cross-generational comparisons________[substantive, methodological and theoretical focus established]

DIRECT

It concludes with some speculative observations about the significance of attending to the psychotherapeutic turn for understanding contemporary femininity.

Our reworking formula

• We suggest that the journal abstract generally consists of three moves which we can represent as:

•Locate

•Focus

•Argue

Three moves

• Locate: specific paper in relation to larger project/debates/issues

• Focus: identify the particular questions/issues/kinds of problems that the paper will explore/examine

• Argue: Open out the argument, analysis, speculations.. ‘and indicate a point of view

Example 1LOCATE: The fact that children growing up in poverty are likely to be in the lower ranges of achievement on standardized literacy tests is not a new phenomenon. Internationally there are a myriad of intervention and remedial programs designed to address this problem with a range of effects. Frequently, sustainable reforms are curtailed by deficit views of families and children growing up in poverty.

• FOCUS:This article describes an ongoing research study entitled, Teachers Investigate Unequal Literacy Outcomes: Cross-Generational Perspectives, which made teacher researchers central in examining this long-standing dilemma. It outlines the research design and rationale and examines how two early career teachers worked their ways out of deficit analyses of the children they were most worried about.

• ARGUE: It argues that disrupting deficit discourses and re-designing new pedagogical repertoires to reconnect with children’s lifeworlds is a long-term project that can best be achieved in reciprocal research relationships with teachers.

From Comber, B. and Kamler, B. (2004) Getting out of deficit: Pedagogies of reconnection. Teaching Education 15 (3), 293-310.

Example 2LOCATE: Bullying is a serious problem in schools.

• FOCUS:This paper reports on a project in which the authors worked with a group of secondary students in an innovative school in the north of England to research issues of bullying and safety. The student researchers used photographs to stimulate conversations with focus groups of their peers. The data showed that while there was little serious bullying in the school, there was an everyday practice of name-calling, isolation, and physical hassling associated with the formation and maintenance of a hierarchy of sub-cultural groupings in the school.

• ARGUE: The students’ research not only challenges the notion of bullying as necessarily involving a perpetrator and victim, but also offers a lens through which to examine the imbrication of educational differentiation via setting, testing and choice with youth identification practices. It is suggested that this project also has implications for the ways in which one understands and works for inclusion.

From Thomson P and Gunter H ( 2008.) Researching bullying with students: a lens on everyday life in an ‘innovative school’. International Journal of Inclusive Education 12 (2) 185-200.

These two examples suggest that what goes in each of the three moves varies in length and in complexity. The first example is situated in a field where there is considerable debate and the authors need to situate their position very clearly. In contrast, the second addresses a problem that is well known and needs little further explanation. The two examples also differ in the way that they argue. The first makes one very strong point. The second draws three conclusions – a challenge to existing thinking, a new lens on the problem and a potential implication for a more general issue, that of inclusion.

We are offering categories of moves, not recipes for how much to say about what. This depends on the topic, the research and the argument.(Kamler & Thomson 2009)

Questions to guide the analysis of your abstract

• What’s the research problem being addressed?• How well is the work located in its field of scholarship or in relation to broader educational issues?

– To what extent does the abstract locate your contribution in relation to wider debates or concerns of the field?

– Can this location be made clearer?

• Where is the researcher standing in relation to this problem? – How have you represented yourself as scholar? Do you sound expert enough?

• Has the abstract flagged up the kind of research that was undertaken and the nature of the evidence offered?

• What is the argument? – Is there an argument being offered or a significance being highlighted? If not, what is it? If so, can it be

made stronger?

• Is so-what/now what question addressed?– Have you identified the significance of the approach, and any implications for further research, policy or

practice?– Have you convinced the reader that they need to read this article?

From abstract to article

• What do I want the audience to remember about my research? • What are the main points/topics/issues that matter most?• What have I added to knowledge - have I got an ‘angle’ as well as

evidence?• How can I best ‘chunk’ or structure my article to assist with the

aboveWorking from the abstract to devise a structure - this can become the

map of the paper• What do I need to include? • Does the abstract provide the ordering of the article - if not rewrite

the abstract so that it does…

LOCATE: Bullying is a serious problem in schools.

FOCUS:This paper reports on a project in which the authors worked with a group of secondary students in an innovative school in the north of England to research issues of bullying and safety. The student researchers used photographs to stimulate conversations with focus groups of their peers. The data showed that while there was little serious bullying in the school, there was an everyday practice of name-calling, isolation, and physical hassling associated with the formation and maintenance of a hierarchy of sub-cultural groupings in the school.

ARGUE: The students’ research not only

challenges the notion of bullying as necessarily involving a perpetrator and victim, but also offers a lens through which to examine the imbrication of educational differentiation via setting, testing and choice with youth identification practices. It is suggested that this project also has implications for the ways in which one understands and works for inclusion.

• Introduction in current policy context (500 words)

• LARGEST SECTION OF ARTICLE

• Description of the site of study ( 500 words)

• Account of methodology - trigger photographs located in the visual research literatures (1000 words)

• Report of major findings - description of thematised findings moving to analysis (2,000 words)

• Theorisation of inclusion, reference to broader literatures on school sorting and selecting ( 1,000 words)

Argument about the significance of the findings, viz. disjuncture with prevailing policy approach

Elaboration of some implications for research and practice ( 1500 words)

Perils and Pitfalls

• Temptation to compress all the ‘thesis’ or research report into one article

• Saying ‘everything’, focussing on ‘nothing’• Not guiding the reader• Not locating the contribution: for a particular audience, in

relation to wider debates, the specific argument of this article

• Sounding like a newbie rather than an equal• Does not adequately deal with the methodology ( see

Yates)• Not significant - too local, done a lot, doesn’t add

anything ( no ‘angle’)

Discursive shifts in converting conference papers to articles

Should we be encouraged to write the article first

and then prepare the conference paper OR write

the conference paper first and then develop the

article?

Discursive shifts in converting conference papers

• Present/absent, familiar/unfamiliar, comfortable/scary audience

• Implicit/explicit attention to the significance of the work: ‘so what’?

• Careful location of the work in wider debates and contexts of the field

• Genre shift from narrative, recount or description (powerpoint slides) to argument

• Negotiating a scholarly identity on paper• Attending to the politics/epistemology and style of the

journal

The writing task

• To develop a publication plan for the 2008-09 academic year. Usually 3-4 articles, for the purposes of the workshop ONLY 2 articles

• Research the journals: editorial board, types of articles, stance epistemologically and writing style, ISI status

• Plan all written work in relation to possible conference presentations. Articles written first, then conference papers

• What research, networking, workload re-structuring needs to be done to achieve plan? What is a reasonable time line?

Publication plan• Title of article

• Targeted Journal

• Timeline

• Drafting

• Feedback from others

• Submission

• Possible relationship to conference

• Abstract (100 - 150 words)

• Keywords

Sharing publication plans: Groups

• Why have you chosen these journals for representing your work?

• What other options do you have if the article is rejected?

• What do the articles offer that is significant or distinctive? How do you answer the so what question?

• What do you particularly like about the argument(s) you are offering?

Sharing publication plans

• Tell the whole group about the first article you will be working on:

– Title

– Target journal

– Key argument

Pedagogic strategy :Standing in the shoes of an

authoritative writer - adopting their discursive stance

Sentence skeleton (Dunsmire)From Dunsmire, P. (1997). Naturalizing the future in factual discourse: A critical linguistic analysis

of a projected event. Written Communication, 14(2), 221-64.

The study builds on and contributes to work in __________________________________________________________

Although studies in __________________________________ have examined _________________________________, there has not been an extended study of _________________________________________________.

As such, this study provides additional insight into ________________________________________________________.

The analytic focus on _______________________________ enables another contribution.

This study analyzes _________________________________________________________.

Although numerous studies ( ) have identified __________________________________________________________

little analytic attention has been paid to ___________________________________________.I address this issue by _______________________________________________________.

Sentence skeleton (Creighton)From Creighton, B. (2000). One hundred years of the conciliation and arbitration power: A province

lost? Melbourne University Law Review, 24, 839-865.

As Australia enters _______________________________, there are many who would argue __________________________________________. Others would go further and say__________________________________________________________________.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the manner in which _____________________________________________________

and to consider ____________________________________________________.

This is done by reference to four key elements in ____________________________________________________.

Sentence skeleton (Lavie) From Lavie,J (2006).Academic discourse on school-based teacher collaboration: Revisiting the

arguments, Educational Administration Quarterly, 42 (5), 773-805.

• In this article, I discuss the main arguments that deal with the issue of _________________. In distinguishing between ________________ it is my purpose to highlight the ______________________________________by pointing to ___________________________________________________________.

• Besides providing a map of the___________________________________, I assess the extent to which these ____________________________________________lay a groundwork for ____________________________________________________.

• The article is structured as follows. After giving an overview of the scope of the__________________________________________, I review the particular___________________________________________________.

• Next, I provide a summary of________________________________.• Finally, in the last two sections, I consider several implications derived

from_____________________________________________________________________and argue that____________________________________.