Page 160 - Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

144 Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

Method

In this exploratory study which is part of a wider project, we interviewed seven developing writers
at different stages of development as writers in order to ascertain their prevailing beliefs with regard
to writing and their own abilities in this regard. The writers we spoke to were identified by one of the
researchers who works in the same university and the interviews were carried out by the other re-
searcher in the context of a short workshop. The participants were interviewed separately, after only
one day of the course, to avoid too much exposure to the other researcher’s discourse on writing and
to identify their current state of beliefs. We asked participants three categories of question, current
writing practices, feelings about feedback and success and their future as academic writers.

All seven participants were women with different backgrounds and levels of education. All partici-
pants had at least finished the formal part of a postgraduate degree. Some were finishing their MA
dissertation, others had finished and moved on to PhD studies. Two had finished PhD studies and
were establishing themselves as academic writers. We show the stages of development in Table 1.
We include the stage of formal education, what the participant is currently writing and their expecta-
tions for the future.

Table 1: Participant stages of development as writers

All interviews were transcribed broadly and analyzed using basic theme-based methods with the aim
of identifying topics to form the basis for further research. All transcripts are in the participant actual
words and so may not be grammatically correct (as is true of all speech). In transcribed sections any
relevant non-verbal information (for example, laughter) is included in double brackets. Any transcribed
sections reported below are between inverted commas and the participant is credited at the end.