Risk in Postgraduate Writing: Voice, Discourse and Edgework

Abstract

This paper brings writing into the contested space of research and knowledge-making in South Africa. An often hidden dimension of research is that it has to find expression in a written product, increasingly in English. This creates challenges for both students, who have developed writing identities in other domains, disciplines and languages, and also supervisors and journal editors who are gatekeepers for the making of new knowledge. In a competitive and uncertain climate where discourses of risk management play an increasingly important part, people tend to play it safe when it comes to writing, conforming to a narrow image of scientific writing. This has consequences for knowledge-making as students often set aside the experiences, allegiances and styles they have developed along the way. Drawing on data from an international publishing project on risk in academic writing, the paper explores dilemmas around the process of research writing. These instances make the contradictions and tensions faced by writers and gatekeepers central, highlighting the importance of voice and risk. Both voice and risk are explored experientially and theoretically, with the emphasis on the potentials of risk. The concept of risk, not as risk management, but as risk-taking, offers new ways of thinking about writing that brings the decisions that writers and readers make to the fore. A focus on risk has the potential to offer new understandings about the changing landscapes in which writers and readers weigh up their options against notions of what is "normal". Finally I suggest edgework as a productive concept that can take work on risk forward in both research and pedagogy.

Agency and Articulation in Doctoral Writing: Building the Messy Research Journey into a Well-Constructed Thesis

“…Knowledge isn't the sole possession of a wealthy western white male few-it comes in many shapes and forms and in many instances it is indeed silenced and considered inappropriate, inadmissible, until those expressing that knowledge find their voice and confident, articulate expression, in forms which are likely to change the norms of expression. Focusing on such culturally inflected writing, Thesen (2013) reveals that providing writing support for all students is still under resourced and often absent. Chihota (2007) defines the experience of being a post/graduate as "the post/graduate condition", which Thesen (2013), focusing on international post/graduates, elaborates as "a pervasive and extended state of being both novice and expert, deeply dependent on precedent, yet required to contribute something new and original" (Thesen, 2013, p. 105).…”

“…Focusing on such culturally inflected writing, Thesen (2013) reveals that providing writing support for all students is still under resourced and often absent. Chihota (2007) defines the experience of being a post/graduate as "the post/graduate condition", which Thesen (2013), focusing on international post/graduates, elaborates as "a pervasive and extended state of being both novice and expert, deeply dependent on precedent, yet required to contribute something new and original" (Thesen, 2013, p. 105). Johnson, Lee and Green (2000) identify what Thesen calls the "fantasy" of the "autonomous self" that pervades the "western" academy-the independent scholar produced through supervision practices in the humanities and social sciences.…”

“…They trace the antecedents of this autonomous self to the Enlightenment and the "reasonable man construct" (Thesen, 2013, p. 105). While we can recognise "the writing of research as an important feature in the drive to increase postgraduate enrolments", nonetheless, "writing is often not regarded as central to postgraduate pedagogy" (Thesen, 2013).…”

“…As supervisors, one responsibility is to make the challenges explicit, then support the transitions and translation. Thesen (2013) introduces the notion of "edgework" (Lyng, 1990) to explore "the conceptual edges at which risk and discourse operate. Edgework helps us explore risk-taking from below, from the positions of participants on the margins.…”

Equitable multilingualism? The case of Stellenbosch University Writing Laboratory

“…But what does this mean and what are its implications? Boughey (2010) and Thesen (2013) allude to the complicity inherent in a practice that inducts students into university as if the writers come with nothing of their own and no prior expertise. How do we negotiate this?…”