Stepping Stones to Achieving your Doctorate by Vernon Trafford & Shosh Leshem

Author:Vernon Trafford & Shosh Leshem [Trafford, Vernon; Leshem, Shosh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-335-22543-9
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Published: 2008-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

Task 7.2 What are the characteristics of your lexicon?

Identify 10 terms that characterise the lexicon of your discipline or field.

Putting words into the structure of a sentence for maximum impact requires thought. Cheney (2005: 101) advises writers to think of a sentence very simply as having an opening, a middle and an end. Then he suggests that writers place their important ideas and words either at the start or at the closure of sentences. This structuring presents readers with important emphases either as the sentence opens or as it closes. Less important words and ideas fill the middle ground of sentences. He argues that writers should view their paragraphs, chapters and whole work in the same way. He believes that readers should be welcomed into a substantial piece of writing with a flourish of attractive ideas. They should leave it with positive memories of those ideas. When these two features are woven into extended prose, then readers will gain value from their reading (Cheney, 2005: 107–115).

Assembling your text over the period of your doctoral programme contains at least two latent difficulties. First, as you read widely, your lexicon will expand. Then, as you progress into your research, your understanding of the topic and the associated methodology that you use will be enriched. Although your lexicon is still subject-bound, the words and vocabulary that you use will change over time. You will certainly find that some of your previous text or individual words need to be revised because you have altered your views. This exemplifies Kuhn’s notion of a paradigm shift when a person’s beliefs and perspectives are changed (Kuhn, 1996: 18–19, 109). Such processes of change and maturation as a writer accord with Burgess’s (1973) belief that: ‘It is sometimes difficult for a writer to be the same … over a long stretch of time.’

Using Burgess’s idea Zerubavel (1999: 87) addresses the second latent difficulty with long-term writing. He identifies the need to anticipate closure of chapters and the entire work so that it does not adversely affect writing. He argues that if it does, then the result might be that: ‘What may have been once a source of great pleasure and excitement can become a source of boredom and frustration.’ This echoes precisely the feeling of Examiner C in Example 7.5. toward what seemed to have been rather tired writing in a thesis submitted by one candidate. Zerubavel’s solution to this occurring is to reward yourself when you achieve previously agreed targets and deadlines. He suggests that: ‘This could be a “treat” such as a special dinner which serves as a celebratory reward for your accomplishment.’ This may not appeal to everyone, but it is a nice motivational idea all the same!

The mechanics of doctoral writing are, for Hartley (1997: 106): ‘putting into practice what we already know’. As we have seen already, through the expectations of examiners and the comments by supervisors this involves candidates thinking like researchers when writing about research. This entails writing in accessible prose that introduces and accounts for the research that is in their thesis.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.