Voice and Feedback in Academic Writing Strategies for Managing the Challenge

When undertaking a PhD, actually writing it is often the most emotionally demanding as well as intellectually challenging part of the whole process. Voice and Feedback in Academic Writing: Strategies for Managing the Challenge is a small, inexpensive book with hints and tips and exercises that goes a long way to helping alleviate the pain in the PhD writing process for students, and would be relevant throughout their candidature. It is also a book that describes what is needed to make this experience more co-operative, and gives students a template to start their own writing groups.

Chapter 1 explores why writing well is important, and offers a rationale for why it is important to consider writing practice early and often. It also looks at what is good writing and where you can find helpful examples, and then ends by examining the role of reading in writing. Chapter 2 looks at how to locate your study, advance your argument, and make a case for your own work. Chapter 3 then looks at how to build a credible persona and adopt a 'writerly' stance. It also teaches transitions that allow you to provide a sense of movement through your argument and allow the reader to follow your ideas. Chapter 4 then outlines four steps to writing, the three stages of drafting, and then ends with four hints on 'how to get started and keep going'.