Supervising writing: helping postgraduate students develop as researchers

Abstract

Research and enquiry skills are increasingly required of students at all levels of the higher education curriculum, and this requires a sophisticated pedagogical response. The question is: how can we integrate current knowledge about academic writing with current knowledge about supervision? This article integrates different approaches to writing with an established theory of supervision to develop a new model for supervising the writing component of the doctoral curriculum. Theory-driven and research-based, the original model integrated five different approaches, that is, functional, enculturation, critical thinking, emancipation and relationship development and offered a way forward that has been used in many supervisor development programmes. The adaptation offered here provides a new framework for supervising writing that integrates different approaches and draws on a range of literature and research. It could help supervisors to recognise, choose from and combine the approaches to supervising writing that are available.