Writing up a Qualitative PhD Masterclass with Professor David Silverman (closed for registration)

Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/10/2024 - 09/10/2024 10:00 am - 1:00 pm

Audience:

Writing Up a Qualitative PhD masterclass

With Professor David Silverman

 

8-9th October 2024

11.00-13.30 (8th October)

10.00-12.30 (9th October)

Online via Zoom

Summary:

Whether you are doing a traditional PhD or a PhD by publication, ‘writing up’ should never be something left to the end of your research. Instead, writing should be a continuous process,  learning from your supervisor, your peers and your own mistakes. I examine how this writing up can be accomplished efficiently if rarely painlessly.

This masterclass is taught via lectures, small group workshops followed by feedback sessions and one-to-ones with selected participants. Whether you are just starting a research degree or in your final year, this is the course for you. Among the topics covered are:

  • The PhD as an apprenticeship. What ‘originality’ means.
  • Learning from your supervisor and your peer groups
  • The need for consistency. Fitting your research question and methodology to your research model.
  • Reassurance strategies when difficulties arise: the low bar in qualitative research.
  • Designing a methodology that allows for rapid data gathering and early data analysis.
  • Practical suggestions about when to write a literature review and what it should contain.
  • How to avoid dull methodology chapters. Keeping a research diary.
  • How to write credible and interesting data chapters. What to include and what to omit.
  • Concluding chapters that are not summaries but which stretch the imagination.

This master-class offers lectures and data workshops covering the latest approaches to key areas of qualitative research:

  • Do’s and don’ts in writing a qualitative PhD
  • Reader-friendly literature reviews, methodology sections and conclusions. What counts as originality.
  • Persuasive data chapters

The workshop will consist of 3.5 hours of lectures followed by Q&As, and one-to-one supervisions for up to 5 participants (see details below).

 

SCHEDULE

Tuesday October 8

10.00 Introductory lecture: The PhD as an apprenticeship: do’s and don’ts in doing a qualitative PhD

10.30 Q&A

10.50 short break

11.00 Fitting your methodology to your research model: the need for consistency

12.00 Q&A

12.30 Day ends

 

Wednesday October 9

10.00 Effective literature reviews and methodology sections

10.50 Q&A

11.05 short break

11.15 Persuasive data chapters and concluding chapters

12.15 Q&A

12.30   Session ends

Lunch break

2.00-3.30 one-to-one meetings with selected candidates

 

One-to-one meetings

Five individual, 15-minute discussions with selected participants (who have been offered a place on the masterclass) about their research are available. Further readings may be sent as appropriate. If you would like a 1-1, please email David September 30-October 2 using no more than 150 words to set out:

  • Your research topic
  • Proposed methodology
  • Up to three questions you would like me to answer.

Send to d.silverman@gold.ac.uk stating that you are doing the writing up workshop and list your disciplinary background and year that you commenced your research and your university and department.

Although I will only be able to see 5 people, everybody who writes to me will receive comments and, where appropriate, readings.

Prof David Silverman is Visiting Emeritus Professor at Leeds University Business School, Professor Emeritus in the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths College, London Visiting Professor in the King’s College Business School, University of London and the Business School, University of Technology, Sydney as well as Adjunct Professor at QUT, Faculty of Education. He has authored 15 books and over 50 journal articles on qualitative research, ethnography and conversation analysis. Thirty of his students have successfully completed their PhD and three are now full Professors.

His bestselling textbook Doing Qualitative Research [now in its 6th edition] is a manual for writing a qualitative PhD. Uniquely, it is based on conversations he has had with hundreds of social science research students in five continents.