The process of writing at the graduate level

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The process of writing at the graduate level

• Margaret S. Barrett
• Associate Professor Music and Arts Education
• Faculty of Education

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Some jumping off points

• We learn to write by writing
• We learn to write by reading
• We learn to write well by reading well
• Read
• What is on the page
• What isnt on the page (why isnt it?)
• Who is referenced, who isnt?
• What is the purpose of this text?
• Identify the thought community, the school
  the tradition
• Predict, check, and be prepared for surprises
• Summarise (in writing!)
• Annotated bibliography (Endnote)

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When, where, why, for whom, and what

• Before the field
• In the field
• Beyond the field

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Writingbefore the field (unofficially)

• Journals and diaries
• Whats your hunch?
• How did this come about?
• How does this relate to your life-experience
  (personal and professional)?
• Whats your passion?
• Why you?
• Who says the same/different?

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Exercise 1

• Who are you as a researcher? Write a brief
  autobiographical account of yourself using only
  nouns. Use the following categories as a guide
  Places Schools Jobs Favorites Current
  status Research topic Hunch/es.
• Share.

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Writingbefore the field (officially)

• Preliminary research plan
• Ethics application
• Research proposal
• Establishing the gap
• Shaping the question/s
• Identifying methodological possibilities
• Designing the research methods and techniques

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Exercise 2

• Who have you read?
• List the key names in your field of substantive
  inquiry Order these (Chronological? Sub-theme?
  Geographic representation? Other?).

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Literature review

• Audience
• Of 2
• Purpose
• To make a case, an argument.
• Form
• Frameworks Identify the key topics relevant to
  your research list them in the sequence that
  will establish your argument.

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Exercise 3

• This purpose of this study is to
• This study does not

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Writingin the field

• Field-notes
• Diaries and reflective journals
• Descriptive vignettes
• Narratives
• Lists, phrases, emerging themes

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Writingin between and beyond the field

• Writing up writing down
• The dissertation
• Other output?

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What sort of writer are you?

• Ought-to-be writing writer?
• Ought to be researching researcher?
• Ought to be researching writer?
• Ought to be writing researcher?
• Wolcott, H. (2001). Writing up qualitative
  research. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications

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Writing practices

• Join a reading group
• Join a writing group
• Give your writing to others to read (always
  bearing in mind the perspectives they bring and
  what this provides you)
• Categorise your writing notes observation notes
  methodological notes theoretical notes, personal
  notes interpretive notes (based on Richardson,
  2000)
• Experiment with different ways of writing your
  data

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Example

• In a space some 25 x 9m separate activities are
  taking place
• 1. juggling balls
• 2. juggling clubs
• 3. tissue
• 4. spinning rope
• 5. chair balance
• 6. hoop diving
• 7. hula hoops
• 8. teeter board
• 9. pyramids / adagio.
• Each activity supervised by a trainer, some work
  the group (juggling) others working one-to-one
  whilst the rest of the group watches, waiting
  their turn (tissue teeter board). Teacher
  student ratio is 51

• Hula Hoops
• A crinoline of spinning hoops
• A dozen or more
• Captured one, two, three at a time
• Circling the girls body.
• Her face a mask of concentration,
• Her teacher, watching, evaluating,
• Judging the moment
• to throw the next hoops.
• The crinoline collapses,
• clatters to the floor,
• Is built again,
• Until the swirl of colours
• Loops the girls body
• in a revolving shimmer of light (Barrett).

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What are your writing habits?

• Time?
• Morning, noon, night?
• Place?
• Home, work elsewhere
• Conditions?
• Silence, background sound, the desk, the chair?
• Rites and rituals?
• Preparations, materials, distractions?

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How do you start?

• By writing?
• By reviewing yesterdays work?
• By reading?
• By planning?

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• Description
• Analysis
• Interpretation

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Doing the sums

• Introduction (necessary academic
  throat-clearing or marking the so what)
• Literature review (setting the scene, making your
  case)
• Methods (giving an account of what, with whom,
  when, where, and why)
• Data analysis (description, analysis)
• Findings (interpretation)
• Conclusions and recommendations
• 80,000 - 100,000 words (MAX!)

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What sort of text is this?

• Who is in it?
• Where are you?
• Where is your reader?

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Writing as method

• writing is not just a mopping up activity at the
  end of a research project. Writing is also a way
  of knowing - a method of discovery and
  analysis. By writing in different ways, we
  discover new aspects of our topic and our
  relationship to it. Form and content are
  inseparable (Richardson, 2000. 923).

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References

• Bloom, H. (2001). How to read and why.London
  Fourth Estate.
• Richardson, L. (2000). Writing A method of
  inquiry. In N. K. Denzin Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.)
  Handbook of qualitative research. (2nd edition).
  Thousand Oaks, CA sage Publications.
• Wolcott, H. (2001). Writing up qualitative
  research. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications