Research Masterclass - Research Writing With Authority

The workshop will briefly present a theoretical approach to academic texts and identities. We will then look at the thesis and three places in the thesis where authority must be claimed in order to demonstrate ‘doctorateness’ –

• the introduction and the warrant,
• the conclusion and the claims and implications, and
• literature work.

We will use creative participatory approaches to (1) and (2) while (3) will involve some paired working on the actual literature work participants are doing as well as an examination of common literature problems.

Participants will develop their understandings of the ways in which academic writing not only counts for PhD ’success’ but also matters beyond and after the thesis.

Professor Pat Thomson PSM PhD FAcSS FRSA is Convenor of the Centre for Research in Arts, Creativity and Literacy (CRACL). . Pat is known for her interdisciplinary engagement with questions of creative and socially just learning and change. Much of this work has been in collaboration with Professor Christine Hall.

Pat 's academic writing and research education blog 'patter' is archived by the British Library and posts are frequently republished elsewhere. She tweets as @ThomsonPat and has an academic writing 'patter' facebook page. Her research activities can be seen on a range of websites - , the RAPS project, the TALE project, Performing Impact, Cultural Value and Live Art, and Quality in Alternative Education. She worked collaboratively with Professor Toby Greany to investigate school leaders work during the pandemic, this led to an ESRC project looking at the sustainability of school leadership across the four UK nations.

At present, she is an Adjunct Professor at the Free State University, South Africa, a Visiting Professor at Deakin University, Victoria, and The University of South Australia, Australia.

Pat chairs the research group of the APPG for Art Craft and Design Education. In 2023 they published a major report on Art and design education - Art Now.

Pat also works in researcher education and research and writes about the writing that scholars want to, and must, do. She has also worked with Inger Mewburn, the Thesis Whisperer, on academic blogging.

For more information, please email the Research Training Team.