Writing a PhD Thesis in Counterpoint to its Traditional Map: : Writing to and With Theories and Concepts Encountered in the Doing of Doctoral Studies

Mary Garland

doi:10.7577/rerm.6277

Authors

Mary Catherine Garland Plymouth University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5018-6163

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.6277

Keywords:

PhD thesis, writing, post qualitative inquiry, research-creation

Abstract

This article offers insights into challenges encountered in the landscaping of a doctoral thesis written in counterpoint with its traditional map. The inspiration behind the author’s thesis is a sixteen-year-old withdrawn from an English Further Education college on her first day. Consequently, the thesis troubles seemingly rigid orthodox academic structures and writing conventions, which potentially act as a barrier to learning. Animating the (non)methodological approaches of a PhD thesis written for everyone denied the opportunity of fulfilling their academic potential, this paper engages with speculative and experimental approaches to research, asking not ‘what is’, but ‘what if’.

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