“He just told me to get on with it”: Insights into Transforming Doctoral Writing Development

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa

This paper reports results of a two-year qualitative study on threshold concepts (TCs) in doctoral writing, conducted in New Zealand tertiary education. The research used cross-disciplinary case studies to examine how students become stuck and how mastering troublesome ideas can be transformative. Findings informed the development of a “thinking to write” strategy (the 4x4), implemented within a pan-university doctoral writing programme, highlighting two specific TCs in doctoral writing.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Background

Conceptual Framework

Threshold concepts and doctoral writing

Two threshold concepts in doctoral writing

Transforming doctoral support

“He just told me to get on with it”: Insights into Transforming Doctoral 2015cewlCtwELuwwTsintVleol.VrcacIIIa Writing Development E. Marcia Johnson The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand This paper reports on the results of a two-year study into threshold concepts (TCs) in doctoral writing. The findings informed the development of a thinking to write strategy (the 4x4) that has been implemented as part of a pan-university doctoral writing programme at a New Zealand university. Background This paper describes findings from a New Zealand two-year, qualitative research project that explored threshold concepts (TCs) in tertiary education – the point(s) at which students can become “stuck”, unable to make intellectual progress. The four project case studies were all informed by threshold concept theory, which asserts that concepts that are troublesome to learn can also be transformative when mastered. Once grasped, they reconfigure students’ understanding of a discipline and what it means to be a disciplinary expert. Three of the cases focused on TCs in undergraduate disciplines (English, Engineering, and Management Leadership) . The fourth case (mine) was devoted to identifying TCs in doctoral writing. Through the cross-disciplinary case studies and collaborative teamwork, the project group endeavoured to answer a key research question about how lecturers’ awareness of threshold concepts could affect teacher-student discourse and pedagogical practice at the tertiary level. The team was also interested in whether there were threshold concepts that spanned disciplines. This paper focuses on two threshold concepts that were identified in the doctoral writing case study and describes how they enhanced an existing pan-university programme to support doctoral students as writers. Conceptual Framework Threshold concepts and doctoral writing Meyer and Land (2003) introduced the notion of TCs that students must understand in order to think like a subject specialist and not be bothered by troublesome knowledge. According to TC theory, in each academic discipline there exist special concepts that can reveal new and previously inaccessible ways of thinking about a subject. TCs represent the intellectual places where students get stuck (Davies, 2006; Meyer & Land, 2005; Wisker & Savin-Baden, 2009) and are unable to make substantive progress in their academic work until the concepts are understood. Meyer and Land (2003, 2005) state that there are five key characteristics ofTCs: crossing themis transformative, irreversible, integrative, bounded, and troublesome. They also refer to the intellectual space in which students are unable to make intellectual progress as “liminal space” and believe that it is crucial to uncover why and how some students undergo a transformational, or even a creative, experience while in the liminal space of incomplete understanding. In the area of doctoral writing, Kiley (2009) argues that students face a number of challenges as doctoral writers and that surmounting them both requires, and facilitates, personal transformation. The development of deep understanding of such concepts as theoretical or conceptual frameworks, knowledge of how to shape complex arguments and mastery of doctoral writing conventions all require candidates to cross intellectual thresholds. Until they do, students can feel that they are making no progress in their study, which can lead to a sense of failure, isolation, or hopelessness (p. 294). Writing is the tool that helps students bridge the conceptual space of learner or novice researcher to that of “independent academic scholar”, but paradoxically, being able to master doctoral writing TCs requires students to perform as though they are already academic disciplinary experts and writers. The challenge for this case study then was to determine if there were knowable TCs in doctoral writing and if so, to develop flexible structures that could help stu

FAQs

What is the main focus of the two-year study on doctoral writing?

The study explores threshold concepts (TCs) in doctoral writing—conceptual “sticking points” and how learners progress when those concepts are understood.

What strategy was developed from the study’s findings?

The findings informed a “thinking to write” strategy called the 4x4, implemented in a pan-university doctoral writing programme.

Which two threshold concepts were identified in doctoral writing?

The paper identifies “talking to think” and “developing self-efficacy” as two related threshold concepts for doctoral research writing.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa