Monday, September 29, 2014

Links and resources for thesis writing


Joan Bolker’s “Writing your Dissertation in fifteen Minutes a Day” has proven very helpful to PhD students from all fields and backgrounds. http://www.adelaide.edu.au/english-for-uni/ “Authorial Stance in Research Articles: Examples from Applied Linguistics and Educational Technology” by Phuong Dzung Pho http://www.amazon.com/Authorial-Stance-Research-Articles-Linguistics/dp/1137032774/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412015145&sr=1-1&keywords=Authorial+Stance+in+Research+Articles Swales' and Feak's Academic Writing for Graduate Students (non-native)? Please see here: http://www.amazon.com/Academic-Writing-Graduate-Students-Essential/dp/0472082639. Authorial voice in research writing, such as the PhD dissertation, often tends to mean taking a critical or evaluative stance when building an extended case through the various sections of this type of text. For many writers, problematic areas are the literature review and the discussion chapter. To date, the research on expressing critical or evaluative thinking in written text has tended to take a ‘single-variable’ approach, usually using corpus methods to examine a single linguistic element, such as reporting verbs or evaluative adverbs. In relation to literature review writing, I recently conducted a study examining the literature reviews in research article introductions. a microcosm of this type of writing that shares many similarities with the PhD dissertation literature review chapter(s). I used a multi-variable, genre-based approach as an attempt to achieve a more integrative understanding of the discursive and textual resources involved. The research is published in the latest issue of English for Specific Purposes. For anyone that may be interested – the DOI is 10.1016/j.esp.2014.06.004 Best wishes, Ian Ian Bruce Ph D Senior Lecturer / Graduate Advisor General and Applied Linguistics The University of Waikato Hamilton New Zealand Tel +64 7 838 4466 Extension 6375 Fax +64 7 838 4788 http://www.waikato.ac.nz/wfass/staff/ling/ibruce

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Welcome

Since childhood, I have been interested in the power of the written word, the expression of feelings in writing, the experimentation with words to make the meaning more powerful and the language more effective... I wrote a lot of poetry and short texts in the past. Now, I don't have time.

As a teacher, I have always wanted to offer writing courses, and I ended up doing writing research for my PhD. I am fascinated to observe and reflect on the thinking processes that go into the writing.

The written word is powerful. The spoken word flies away, and what stays is the immortality of writing.