Research writing consultant
The Research Writing Consultant’s assists research students (PhD or Masters by research and Honours, if needed) and postdoctoral fellows improve their academic writing. Assistance is often provided to overseas students who are refining their research proposals but can look at the writing from any research student. The Research Writing Consultant works closely with Supervisors and attempts to reduce their workload by allowing them to focus more on content than style issues, the success of this strategy depends on the writing skills of the student and their commitment to improving their skills. If agreed with the Associate Dean (Research and Higher Degrees), assistance can be provided to academic staff with manuscripts but not research grant applications.
How can the Research Writing Consultant assist researchers?
The key areas are:
- Appropriate structure of documents and arguments;
- Grammar; and
- Writing in a more concise and easily read style.
The Research Writing Consultant does not do electronic editing, and does not edit an entire thesis (but will provide detailed comment at an entire draft journal manuscript or book chapter). The role of the consultant is to build their client’s writing skills rather than being an editing service.
Activities and workshops
The Research Writing Consultant can help research students through the following activities and workshops:
- Individual and small group consultations;
- Workshops open to all research students enrolled in the faculty;
- Online resources; and
- Support for external students via electronic communication.
How to make an appointment
To arrange an appointment you can contact the Research Writing Consultant by email. It helps greatly if you send a draft document e.g. 5-10 pages that have not been edited by anyone but yourself, in advance of an appointment so that the meeting is more productive.
How to arrange a small group workshop
Get a relevant academic staff member to contact the Research Writing Consultant by email or telephone. It is important that you are clear about what you want the workshop to achieve. For some schools the number of research students will necessitate that a workshop approach be adopted rather than individual consultations.
Contact
Research Writing Consultant
To arrange an appointment, contact Dr Greg Maguire
Availability
Monday-Friday, Joondalup Campus