Writing Goes Back to School: Maintaining “Institutional Practices of Mystery” in a Graduate Education Program

• In Event: Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Provoking Tension and Mystery in Graduate Student Writing

Abstract

This paper draws on individual, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 graduate students and 10 professors to discuss writing practices in a Curriculum Studies master’s program. Respondents shared their subjective views about graduate-level writing requirements and pedagogical strategies that facilitate and constrain student success. This paper critically examines the following themes: (1) belief in the existence of universal rules; (2) the view that graduate level writing is “just” a sophisticated version of high-school writing; (3) lack of consensus about the meanings of terms such as organization, clarity and argument; and (4) tensions between students’ desires for explicit feedback and the fragility of their identities as writers in response to feedback. Finally we invite dialogue about implications for graduate education.

Authors

• Rosamund Kathryn Stooke, University of Western Ontario

• Kathryn M. Hibbert, University of Western Ontario