Writing for Scholarly Publication as “Tacit Knowledge”: A Qualitative Focus Group Study of Doctoral Students in Education

Student Perceptions of Scholarly Writing

“…The existing literature discusses how professional communities organize information for scholarly writing (Byard, 2013;Gazza & Hunker, 2012;Guilford, 2001;Jalongo, Boyer, & Ebbeck, 2014;Patterson, 2001;Shields, 2014). Using the search terms of scholarly writing, scientific writing, and disciplinary writing processes, we conducted a review of occupational therapy literature discussing detailed pedagogical instructional strategies, which yielded a limited number of specific articles.…”

“…The nursing literature has addressed teaching scientific and scholarly writing over the last several decades. Authors emphasized the importance of providing a structural model for effectively teaching writing in a discipline (Berg & Serenko, 1993;Gazza & Hunker, 2012;Hunker, Gazza, & Shellenbarger, 2014;Jalongo et al, 2014;Patterson, 2001;Regan & Pietrobon, 2010). Regan and Pietrobon (2010) acknowledged the importance of using the writing process to learn about specific content at metacognitive levels.…”

“…Of the literature reviewed, seven authors in the fields of biology, chemistry, mathematics, nursing, and psychology used scientific writing as the preferred term (Byard, 2013;Goldbort, 2001;Guilford, 2001;Luttrell et al, 2010;Maoto, 2011;Patterson, 2001;Regan & Pietrobon, 2010;Schulte, 2003;Venables & Summit, 2003); six authors in education and nursing fields used the term scholarly writing 2012;Hunker et al, 2014;Jalongo et al, 2014;Linder, Cooper, McKenzie, Raesch, & Reeve, 2014;McMillan & Raines, 2011;Shellenbarger et al, 2015); four authors in nursing, library science, and occupational therapy used the terms professional writing or the writing process (Berg & Serenko, 1993;Parr & Timperley, 2010;Shields, 2014;Whitney & Davis, 2013); and three authors used the term selfregulated writing (Bastian, 2014;Fauchald & Bastian, 2015;Nilson, 2014). Although a preferred term does not exist to describe the writing process, we have chosen to use scholarly writing as the overarching concept explored in this article, as it fits with the current standards for an ACOTEaccredited educational program (2011).…”

Academic Publishing: Making the Implicit Explicit

“…The growth in popularity of the thesis-by-publication is further testament to these pressures [1]. Yet most doctoral programmes provide little in the way of pedagogical support for students to meet these demands for greater output [2,3]. Having research published, which is often portrayed as "commonsensical by experienced scholars" [4], is obscure and perplexing for many graduate students.…”

“…Meanwhile others flounder their whole careers. Not making these tacit processes explicit contributes to an environment of invisible exclusiveness where those who 'know' become privileged and those who do not are forever held at the margins [3]. In the absence of publishing pedagogies, these inequities will continue to persist.…”