From ad hoc to more Effective and Integrated Academic Dissertation Writing: Developing an Emergent Knowledge Building Corridor

Abstract:

Although postgraduate researchers make up a high percentage of the international students in higher education around the world, they are particularly vulnerable to the relatively high incompletion and failure rates. Good research and academic writing skills are needed to avoid some of the many obstacles faced. This paper develops a framework and self-help guide which may assist PhD students in particular to achieve more effective academic dissertation design and writing. The approach outlined below has been further refined elsewhere in terms of the particular links between language and knowledge building, and also in relation to the second language learning challenges facing many international students (Richards, 2010). Here we focus on the integrated aspects of the design and writing process which might be developed with appropriate