A research writing tool: Designing an online resource for supervisors and students

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses the key findings of a needs analysis, and its impact on the design for an innovative online Research Writing Tool, which aims to facilitate higher degree research writing development in medically related fields. Unlike other resources which target students only, this tool aims to support both supervisors and students to identify student writing needs and to facilitate dialogue, through annotations on successful student thesis excerpts and exemplary supervisor feedback on less successful drafts.

Keywords:

• Higher degree research writing
• supervisor-student dialogue
• feedback
• feedforward
• postgraduate supervision

Acknowledgements

The authors of this paper wish to thank the reviewers, and especially the supervisors and students who have contributed their insights and time to the development of the RWT. A version of this paper was presented at the Quality in Postgraduate Research Supervision Conference in 2016.