Wishing you well with your exams

Tips and Tricks session on academic writing at postgraduate level

On Wednesday 16 October the Writers' Circle went 'mainstream' in the Block Release period and Lynn facilitated a session with students as part of the Research Methodology subject. The session was entitled 'tips and tricks' and sought to introduce a few writing strategies that could help students enhance the clarity and sophistication of their academic writing. Unfortunately because of time constraints the few strategies we were able to discussion like, cohesion and cohensive devices, using reporting verbs and approaches to in-text referencing, were merely introduced, rather than practiced. In our next Writers' Circle (23 October) students will have more time to play around with implementing these strategies in their own writing. 

The slides are available here and additional resources will be uploaded to the blog on these topics. 

What's your topic?

For most research students, the question - "What is your topic" can easily be the most common question you are asked. Especially for students who have just embarked on their research journey, this can also be a question that evokes the most anxiety and confusion. In our session yesterday participants tried to unravel this confusion in a bid to become more confident and clear in expressing their research topic.

Guided by the suggestions offered in the Bloome et al book - Craft of Research participants undertook a few brainstorming tasks with the aim of identifying their research topic, and also to ensure that their topic wasn't too broad, un-researchable, would be of interest and significance to a wider readership. An important part of the session was sharing these brainstorming ideas with a partner and getting feedback on how to narrow the scope of the topic or align it more clearly to the ICT field.

A simply task to try to help identify and refine your topic is this three-step activity (see Bloome et al for more guidance). These skeleton sentences can help you start to think and articulate your topic focus and ensure it has significance to the wider ICT field.

STEP 1: Name your topic

I am trying to learn about /working on/ studying…

STEP 2: Add an indirect Question

(an indirect question indicates what you do not know or  do not understand about your topic)

I am trying to learn about /working on/ studying....(from step 1) because I want to find out ...who/what/when/where/whether/why/ how...

STEP 3: Answer the 'So WHAT?' question by motivating your question

(add a second indirect question that explains why you asked your first question in Step 2)

I am trying to learn about /working on/ studying...(from step 1) because I want to find out who/what/when/where/whether/why/ how...(from step 2)... in order to help my reader understand how, why, or whether...