Latest posts tagged with #PACEspace on Bluesky
"for students like me, writing is more than a skill. It’s a form of resistance. It’s how we carve out space in institutions that weren’t built for us. And anyone who helps us do that — respectfully, ethically, collaboratively — is part of that resistance too."
#PACEspace {JM}
#PACEspace exists to help with exactly this:
"There’s often a stigma attached to seeking support [...]. There’s nothing more authentic than wanting to do your best work. Asking for help isn’t a failure of ability — it’s a refusal to be isolated"
www.thecanary.co/discovery/fe...
Recordings & slides relating to the 'Future of Doctoral Writing' are under 'Content'.
This page is subject to edits but there's enough there for those interested to get a sense of what was discussed.
Thank you to those who managed to attend {JM}
#PACEspace
#PACExtra
www.open.edu/openlearncre...
Snip tool of 2 of my slides on why archives matter discussed in the context of whose archives and how the AI bots are trained
A pdf of my slides on 'AI and multiliteracies' is now available on the EATAW conference website and can be cited via doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Thank you to Jennifer Sizer (orcid.org/0000-0002-27...) for alerting me to #Zenodo (which lets you share presentations via #Orcid with a doi)
#PACEspace {JM}
AI Realism: Reclaiming the Human in AI-enhanced Academic Literacies Julia Molinari Language technologies (LTs) are not new and a life without them means many things to many people: unimaginable, impractical, unavoidable, undesirable, undemocratic, maybe even a welcome relief. LTs include the familiar (dictionaries, machine translators, spellcheckers) and now the unfamiliar, which is rapidly becoming the new normal: LLMs (Large Language Models) powered by GenAI (GenerativeAI) and, apparently, AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) are automating writing in unprecedented ways. I wish to use this talk to press pause, just for a moment, to catch our collective breaths. I would like to halt the dizzying speed at which these technologies are affecting our professional and personal existence by sharing a critical realist perspective (Archer & Maccarini, 2023) on LTs and what it means to be human (Molinari, 2025). This includes reflecting on LTs’ implications for academic literacies broadly understood as multisemiotic modes of communication, which include multilingualism (Lillis & Tuck, 2025). AI Realism entails neither techno-determinism nor techno-enthusiasm nor luddism. Rather, it provides a critical space in which to interrogate why AI has so abruptly irrupted into everyday life and how we might want to respond as educators. For example, it’s no coincidence that ChatGPT was released in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic (Hussain et al., 2024), with significant implications for the development of proctoring and surveillance technologies (McKenna, 2022). It’s also no coincidence that AI is associated with fascist ideologies (McQuillan, 2022). That it remains a black box in terms of how it is trained and by whom also raises concerns for academic writing (Gallagher, 2020). All this presents ideological challenges and opportunities for academic literacies that include, for example, re-visiting what we mean by criticality and agency if these foundational tenets of academi…
I'll be giving this year's keynote at #EATAW25 - alongside Suresh Canagarajah & Federico Navarro - on:
'AI Realism: Reclaiming the Human in AI-enhanced Academic Literacies' (cf abstract) {JM}
🤞
#PACEspace #AcWri #AcademicLiteracies #GenAI #CriticalRealism #OpenUniversity
www.eataw2025.com/keynote
What I love about #PACEspace is the privilege of discussing research writing in progress. Achieving #flow, dealing with #feedback, finding #voice are what we discuss most.
But trusting an Other with your writing is hard. PACE provides a safe & brave space to do this {JM}.
#DoctoralWriting #PhDLife
The @ougradsch.bsky.social will soon be sharing its 'Position Statement & Guidance' on #AI in #DoctoralWriting, co-authored by me {JM} & aimed at doctoral researchers, supervisors, and examiners.
The guidance will inform our #PACEspace Workshops, Writing Circles, and 1-1 Consultations
#AcWri
[1/2]
How to read a paper involving artificial intelligence (AI)
Key messages:
1. [...]
2. [...]
3. A preliminary framework and set of questions for appraising a paper [...] are described
Insightful for #DoctoralWriting #CriticalReading #AcWri {JM}
#PACEspace
bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/4/1/...
Free online workshop on 1st time conference attendance:
*Giving a great talk
*Getting accepted as a speaker
*Networking at conferences
*Making the most of a conference as a student
11 March 3pm UK
Online <ucl.zoom.us/meeting/register/6svwRqk...>
#PACEspace
Slide blue background, white writing: Writing in the Park: PACE writing retreat Facilitator: Dr Julia Molinari with special thanks to Dr Jasmine Hunter-Evans pace@open.ac.uk - 5 February 2025 and Open University logo
Open University Library at dusk with signposts to different areas, including The Park
Open University Library, 2 researchers taking a break from writing to read
Bunting feedback with various handwritten messages in response to: 1) What have you found useful or enjoyed? (Green bunting) and 2) What could we do better next time? (Yellow bunting)
Huge thanks to all who travelled & made it, wrote & stretched 😉, and gave feedback on our all-day #PACEspace 'Writing Retreat' last week in #ThePark - the sun streamed and we *all* got tons of writing done ✍️✍️✍️🥳
#DoctoralWriting
#PhDLife
#ThesisWriting
@ougradsch.bsky.social @oulibrary.bsky.social
"Asking a dissertation abstract to be unerringly clear is like asking someone to explain complex math in a tweet. Wrong time, wrong place."
#AcWri
#DoctoralWriting
#AcademicJargon
#clarity
brandy-schillace.medium.com/no-academic-...
Worth a read #PACEspace, including thread by Philip Ball, below 👇🏼
On a related note, I think this post is still relevant {JM}.
How and who to be on social media, from passive to active - are you an observer (aka lurker?), connector, promoter, influencer, or other?
#SocialMedia
#PACEspace
blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...
Interesting video interviews on writing in the academy from literature to science with scholars at the American University of Beirut.
Of interest to academics in Lebanon, the MENA region, and beyond {JM}
#AcWri #AcademicWriting #AcademicPublishing
#PACEspace #tleap
www.aub.edu.lb/writers-univ...
Good thread for us to follow #PACEspace, on #feedback 👇🏼
[As an aside, I'm planning an informal #ThursdayMorningCoffee (online & on campus) via @ougradsch.bsky.social in the Spring to share experiences, research, and responses to #SupervisorFeedback]
#AcWri #DoctoralWriting #AcademicLiteracies
{JM}
A1
Context is everything.
At #PACEspace (@ougradsch.bsky.social #OpenUniversity) feedback opportunities for developing #AcademicLiteracies in #DoctoralWriting sit alongside supervisor feedback & consist of:
- individual disciplinary consultations on #WritingInProgress
- peer-led #WritingCircles
{JM}
May be of interest to #PACEspace @ougradsch.bsky.social 👇🏼 #AcademicLiteracies
PACE Workshops Block 2 Session 1 Writing the Doctorate Commitment, risk, and voice Julia Molinari January 8th 2024
![book cover design featuring a stark contrast between text and imagery. The title "Risk in Academic Writing" appears prominently in white text against a deep blue background at the top, followed by the subtitle "Postgraduate Students, their Teachers and the Making of Knowledge."
Starting points: ‘How to Books’ on academic writing […] tend to over-generalise, over-simplify, de-skill students […] implicitly and explicitly perpetuating a restricted and deficit model of student competence and language use. The Guides […] tend to focus on how students can imitate existing conventions based on massively problematic assumptions about student homogeneity and the stability of the disciplines (Thesen and Cooper, 2013, p. 4)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:eohd3dwrkvb5fvlovcchugif/bafkreiheuf3aal6bmctky6mk5iowsczds5j4hwjwga7jvpae2sp454lmgm)
book cover design featuring a stark contrast between text and imagery. The title "Risk in Academic Writing" appears prominently in white text against a deep blue background at the top, followed by the subtitle "Postgraduate Students, their Teachers and the Making of Knowledge." Starting points: ‘How to Books’ on academic writing […] tend to over-generalise, over-simplify, de-skill students […] implicitly and explicitly perpetuating a restricted and deficit model of student competence and language use. The Guides […] tend to focus on how students can imitate existing conventions based on massively problematic assumptions about student homogeneity and the stability of the disciplines (Thesen and Cooper, 2013, p. 4)
Book cover of The Scientist’s Guide to Writing, 2nd Edition: How to Write More Easily and Effectively throughout Your Scientific Career, Stephen B. Heard Starting points: Legions of undergraduates have been told that scientists should write in the passive voice (and never, ever, write “I”). This advice is wrong. The passive is prevalent in the literature – but it hasn’t always been, and the tide is shifting back towards the active (Heard, 2022, p. 174)
![Image of a newspaper article depicting an orange brain against an orange brick wall to represent how writers become alienated from their writing.
Starting points
Academic writing: why no 'me' in PhD?
[…] by removing the first person point of view and the active voice from your writing, what you're actually doing is removing yourself. […]
This is a big problem since more than half of the academic writing that already exists is on subjects that are difficult to understand for most non-academics. And when you remove the distinctive self (or voice) from your writing, it can become unbearable to read. When you alienate the 'I' from your dissertation, you are taking a big risk: turning your writing into a mere juxtaposition of facts and figures.
https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/apr/19/academic-writing-first-person-singular](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:eohd3dwrkvb5fvlovcchugif/bafkreighkam6yawrx5q7mtoxiqje6fgohv3t34vj26brylrvtzpfwqaxqq)
Image of a newspaper article depicting an orange brain against an orange brick wall to represent how writers become alienated from their writing. Starting points Academic writing: why no 'me' in PhD? […] by removing the first person point of view and the active voice from your writing, what you're actually doing is removing yourself. […] This is a big problem since more than half of the academic writing that already exists is on subjects that are difficult to understand for most non-academics. And when you remove the distinctive self (or voice) from your writing, it can become unbearable to read. When you alienate the 'I' from your dissertation, you are taking a big risk: turning your writing into a mere juxtaposition of facts and figures. https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/apr/19/academic-writing-first-person-singular
Wee glance into the sorts of discussions we get into at #PACEspace 😱 {JM}:
kick-starting 2025 with a session on 'Commitment, Risk, and Voice' in #DoctoralWriting #ResearchWriting #AcademicLiteracies ✍️
@ougradsch.bsky.social
#ZombieNouns #Nominalisation #AcWri #PhDLife
#WhatMakesWritingAcademic👀
White on Red cover of 'Academic Diary Or Why Higher Education Still Matters' by Les Back
Letter to a new student 1. Listen but don't be silent 2. Care about your grades but don't make them your only goal 3. Read and buy books 4. Don't try and do it all the night before 5. Don't be just a consumer 6. Follow your interests (Les Back, pp 17-24)
Season's Greetings from #PACEspace {JM}
Wishing you all 🕊️, rest, good health, and space to think.
Signing off until January 2025 with some words of hope and wisdom from #AcademicDiary on why #HigherEducation still matters.
#AcWri #DoctoralLiteracies #DoctoralEducation #ResearchWriting #OpenAccess
I 🥰 sharing this with multidisciplinary researchers during #PACEspace sessions:
Helen Sword (cf 'stylish academic writing') is a 💫 force for pumping joy, life, fun, voice, light, love & soul into #AcWri {JM}
#Nominalisations
#ZombieNouns
#AcademicLiteracies
#DoctoralWriting
youtu.be/dNlkHtMgcPQ
For evidence-based authorative & nuanced approaches to #AcademicWriting #DoctoralWriting follow these & their *wonderful blogs* #SocialScience #Humanities #Science
Reply with your go-to #AcWri favourites as my suggestions were capped ✍🏼
#PACEspace {JM}
go.bsky.app/Kt4FCZe
@ougradsch.bsky.social
Webster and Davidson Educational Trust https://www.thorntons-law.co.uk/ The Trust was set up to assist blind and partially sighted people. The Trustees have now resolved to use the Trust's annual income to provide a Musical Education Award and funding towards Educational Visits. The Trusts funds are not extensive and preference will be given to persons resident, or normally resident, in Scotland. Wellbeing of Women http://www.wellbeingofwomen.org.uk/research/research-grants/?menu=1c Funds research dedicated to improving the health of women and babies. William Boreman Charitable Trust https://www.thedrapers.co.uk/Charities/Grant-making-trusts/Sir-William-Boremans-Foundation.aspx Grants to students under 25 resident in the London boroughs of Greenwich or Lewisham. Must be a UK National, and have a family income of c.£25,000 per annum or less. Wine Guild Charitable Trust http://www.wineguilduk.org/ The Trust's objective is to enhance the education of the general public in the knowledge of
This is a great resource for alternative #PostGraduate funding.
Loads of A-Z charities that fund niche groups.
If your uni has a subscription, you can download the 161-page pdf. for free.
If they don't, ask them to subscribe {JM}
www.postgraduate-funding.com/home
@ougradsch.bsky.social
#PACEspace
