Non-curricular postgraduate writing interventions at South African Universities

Abstract

Formalised postgraduate writing support centres are a relatively new phenomenon at the majority of South African universities and have not yet been researched intensively. This article, which forms part of a mandated study, presents the findings of research into the nature of postgraduate writing support at a number of South African universities. In 2014, an external review into the throughput rate of undergraduate and postgraduate students at a particular South African residential university was conducted, which concluded that there was a need for more support for postgraduate students who were conducting research. (University X, 2014). Accordingly, a questionnaire was distributed to writing centres at various institutions across the country. This article describes practices relating to staffing, the availability of resources, as well as the positioning of postgraduate writing support within or separate to undergraduate writing centres. Additionally, findings are presented in terms of the different modes of delivery and the related research outputs. While this article provides an overview of current best practice at a number of university-based postgraduate writing centres, suggestions are also made concerning an ideal model for the foundation of such a writing centre at a large residential university.

Demystifying Research Article Writing: Addressing the Needs of Novice Authors

“…A discussion of main issues of the study is provided. Although a range of studies has identified ways authors can go about writing for specified audience (Feak & Swales, 2009, Bullock & Goggin, 2010, Swales & Feak, 2012and Vivian & Fourie, 2016), there appears to be a gap in the literature when it comes to addressing novice writers' needs when preparing or writing research-based articles for publication. This section surveys the literature regarding issues to be considered when writing various sections of a research-based article.…”

“…The writer does this in a reasonable and respective tone in the presentation, to show an existence of a knowledge gap to be addressed in the article (Bullock and Goggin, 2010). Furthermore, the Introduction section needs to appropriately situate the work within the existing body of related studies in a way that helps the writer to create a space for the new work (Vivian & Fourie, 2016).…”

“…General writing difficulties experienced by student writers, particularly at the postgraduate level, have been the subject of ongoing research. A great deal of consideration has been given to identifying difficulties at the sentence and paragraph levels (Feak & Swales, 2011), the postgraduate writing intervention (Vivian and Fourie, 2016), structure of the methodology section (Peacock, 2011), results section of research report (Lim, 2010) as well as the discussion of the article as an argument (Parkinson, 2011) but less research has investigated writing a research-based article, particularly among novice writers.…”

“…4314/eajess.v3i4.195. concentrate on teaching graduate students research methods courses to help them acquire skills to write theses and dissertations. However, according to Vivian and Fourie (2016), post graduate students in universities often encounter problems comprehending the forms and functions of various sections of the research report. Experience in writing academic journal papers, especially among novice writers has received little attention.…”

An Analysis of the Throughput Rate of Doctoral Students in LIS Schools in South Africa, 2005–2015

“…Van Rensburg, Mayers and Roets (2016) explain that "the role of the supervisor in providing a supportive, constructive and engaged supervision process is important to ensure that the future generation of students have the right educational and skills mix to fulfil the needs of the profession". Vivian and Fourie (2016) conducted a study in which they investigated the nature of support to students by supervisors at a selected number of universities in South Africa. The results of their study suggest that most universities in South Africa have formalised support for postgraduate students.…”