Beyond skills: embodying writerly practices through the doctorate

Robyn Barnacle & Gloria Dall’Alba (2014)

Studies in Higher Education, 39:7, 1139–1149

Abstract

This article explores the features and potential of an embodied, rather than merely skills-based, approach to doctoral writing. The authors’ conceptual framework is derived from the phenomenological literature, particularly Heidegger’s critique of modern life as permeated by a quest for mastery and control. 

They address two key questions with respect to this: 

  • Firstly, what role might the quest for mastery as achieving command or control play in impeding writing and undermining an embodied writerly practice? 
  • Secondly, to what extent might narrow skills-based approaches to writing unwittingly promote the quest for mastery and therefore encourage, rather than diminish, the anxieties that doctoral research writers may feel?

Cite this article

Robyn Barnacle & Gloria Dall’Alba (2014) Beyond skills: embodying writerly practices through the doctorate, Studies in Higher Education, 39:7, 1139–1149, DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2013.777405

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