Writing About the Self as a Vital Component of Preparing Doctoral Students to Write for Research and Publication

Abstract

Although many faculty express concern about the writing ability of doctoral students, research on writing instruction at the graduate level in the social sciences has not been given sustained attention and, consequently, tends to be disjointed in scope and focus. Thus, this chapter synthesizes research over writing instruction with doctoral students to identify trends in approaches and methods that help students become “insiders” as researcher—writers in a disciplinary discourse community. Framing scholarly writing through an introspection-exposition continuum, the chapter explores ways to support doctoral students' development of a writing identity as scholars. Three techniques of narrative, montage, and vignette writing are described as ways to cultivate students' authorial voice, dispositions, and habits of mind as scholarly writers.