Research and Identity When we do research and writing, we are also writing our identity as scholars or academics. For a doctoral student, doing both, research writing as well as identity writing simultaneously, is a fraught task.’ By doing research the researcher is writing himself into a collective identity as a scholar. This collective identity has three main characteristics, Firstly it has a label which is understood by the particular community and the community at large. This label indicates what this group does, what its characteristies are, what does it stand for ete. ‘The term ‘scholas’ stands specifically for a person who indulges in intellectual activities. Secondly such a label is also internalized by a member of the community. We identify ourselves as researchers’... either good, bad or as developing, There could be a discussion within the community 1s to what constitutes being a researcher or a scholar which will be of interest to members of the ‘group. Thirdly an identity will be ascribed a pattern of social behavior. Such doctrs will be always respected, Developers will be suspected etc. Similarly a scholarly identity may be looked upon as somebody who is alway’ in the ivory tower, surrounded by books. An identity, as mentioned, is formative. Every member of a “Community of Practice (CoP) be it a mechanic, artist or an academic will have a personal narrative, a story of how they became’ are becoming members of the community, Such a view of identity which is fluid helps us to locate doctoral work as but a step, no doubt an important one, in becoming an academic. If we logically extend this idea of formativeness it also indicates that even a researcher with a PhD or a PhD supervisor or examiner, has to keep on crafting their identity with respect to the CoP. Once you feel that learning reading and writing skills is what you did as a doctoral student, you have stopped crafting your identity as a researcher. Thomson” has proposed a layered structure for understanding doctoral writing as a social practice. AL the centre of this structure is the text itsel? which is shaped by the supervisor, literature, university norms and such. The outer layer is regulated by Disciplinary conventions, requirements of bodies like UGC, AICTE, NAAC. The act of wtiting the self through research is thus framed by various layers and is not an isolated, individual work as we would like to believe Doctoral work is a lot about learning strategies for and developing a facility for generating, text? A lot of books are available dedicated to this aspect of research work namely academic writing ‘The reason for such books to exist is that few of us are trained into academic writing (which is not the same as writing grammatically correct English). These books deal with a range of topics that cover everything from dealing with your guide, dealing with various pressures of life along, with research to dealing with sentence structures and grammar and punctuation. However, advice for addressing,students in the context of our (Indian!) education system is fiard to come by, especially in the field of architecture ‘What I propose to do in this session isto take you through a discussion on identity work as an activity that is conjoined with Lext work, We will also look at some resources that can help us learn writing, those that I have found and continue to find useful. I will introduce some techniques of academic writing such as CARS, OARS and the reverse outline. We will also do a hands on exercise ‘with what are called as ‘tiny texts’ and use this powerful technique to improve our writing Finally again to quote Murray’, learning comes through writing, quality through revisions and regular writing develops fluency. Writing the Research proposal Writing, any writing, has to do work. In the field of Law the work could be of justice in Govemance it could be a policy or in education it could be leaming, Similarly the research or PhD proposal has (o do work. I. has to tell the reviewers that you are capable of producing disciplinary Knowledge. ‘The proposal announces this capacity through: Familiarity with the right language — Disciplinary terms such as domestic architecture, comfort, environmental press, design thinking, Identity, Culture ete ‘Knowledge Production Practices — Inventories, experiments, Content analysis, case studies, protocol analysis et. Awareness of the Disciplinary Debates — Style in architecture, Black box vs glass box design. process, Onnament in architecture ete If we are to be able to demonstrate a grasp of these aspects as relevant to our chesen field we need to take efforts in writing the research proposal. Of particular importance would be 1. Refining the topic 2. Digging into the reading 3. Putting search into the research. In this session we will discuss these three aspects as well as Look at a strategy for revision. We will also Look at the typical contents of a PhD proposal. However itis important to remember thatgetting the format right; Title, Aim Objective, Methodology, work plan etc., is but a part of this, proposal. The main question will be whether your proposal does the work that it’s supposed to do! Written below are names of some books and blogs which deserve a look from anyone interested in academic writing, I invite you to check them out and decide on their usefulness, Thope to take this session with you, as a facilitator, not as somebody who has been there and done that but rather as somebody who still struggles make the text work for himself. Blogs on Academie writing Patter Thesis Whisperer Explorations of style Books on academic writing How to write a Thesis, Rowena Murray Helping Doctoral Students write, Pat Thomson. Anthoring a PhD, Patrick Dunleavy ‘The Elements of Academic Style, Eric Hayot Style Books Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association ‘The Chicago manual of Style Notes 1. Thomson, Pat, and Barbara Kaniler. Writing for Peer Reviewed Journals. New York, USA: Routledge, 2013. 2 ibid 3. Murray, Rowena, and Sarah Moore. The Handbook of Academic Writing - a Fresh Approach. Berkshire, England: Open University Press, 2006, 4 ibid