This week I have been thinking about writing. As researchers, we spend our time with writing. We immerse ourselves in the works of other people, scrutinising arguments, and devouring ideas. As a doctoral researcher on the long countdown to thesis submission, however, I feel increasing pressure to spend more of my time engaged in the activity of writing.
The origin of these reflections can be traced to a recent suggestion from my DoS to write my first journal article and share the preliminary findings of my research project. To a new researcher this is a daunting task. Knowing where to start is often the problem. In seeking inspiration, I came across one idea that stood out,
‘Ask yourself what would have been the perfect paper for you to have read in order to understand everything you need to know. Then write it…’
(Jacksonville State University 2001, cited in Kamler & Thomson 2006: p.6).
Kamler and Thomson (2006: p.6) reject this suggestion as ‘reductive’ and ‘oversimplified’. I cannot agree. As an idea, it is simple, but as advice, it had proved invaluable. I can conceptualise the article that is missing from my field because I have searched for it, and have been left wanting. In fact, I can identify several missing articles, but for now, all I need is one, one article in which I can make a small contribution to knowledge.
The PhD, of course, is a contribution to knowledge, of which the thesis is the written expression. Framing the PhD process in this way, however, can be problematic for understanding the place of writing in the whole experience. In reference to thesis production, Kamler and Thomson (2006: p.3) argue that the common student phrase, ‘Oh, I’m just writing up’, is unhelpful. It reduces the status of writing to a periphery activity in research, instead of conveying the central place that it should hold. When I was interviewed for my PhD Studentship I told the panel that I was there because I wanted to write. That was true. Until now, however, I thought I was too busy with research to write. Was I misguided? Perhaps research is writing, the process and not merely the product of a PhD.
My supervisor reframed the writing process for me when he said that he engages in two types of writing, writing to speak and writing to think. Research is often writing to think, and this idea has helped me enormously. I am keen to read the thoughts of other MPhil/PhD researchers on research as writing. What do you think?
Reference
Kamler, B. & Thomson, P. (2006) Helping Doctoral Students Write: pedagogies for supervision. Abingdon, Routledge.
