August 2016 – Volume 20, Number 2
Graduate Studies in Second Language (L2) Writing |
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| Author: | Kyle McIntosh, Carolina Pelaez-Morales, & Tony Silva (2016) |  |
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| Publisher: | South Carolina: Parlor Press LLC | ||
| Pages | ISBN | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 207+VII pages | 978-1-60235-713-6 (paper) | $30.00 USD | |
Graduate Studies in Second Language (L2) Writing is a guide book for aspiring and current PhD students, as well as all academics regardless of whether they are associated with L2 writing or not. This book consists of eleven chapters, which focus on varied issues of L2 writing (e.g., the growing interest in L2 writing, challenges and strategies to construct identity in L2 writing, and success stories of internationally recognized L2 writing experts), instances of successful adviser-advisee relations, and the transitional narratives of doctoral students from knowledge consumer to knowledge producer. Even though L2 writing does not have a long history, this book reiterates that there is increased research interest in the area from graduate students in different programs, including Applied Linguistics, TESOL, Communication, and Rhetoric and Composition.
The instance of chronological research development in L2 writing demonstrates that it does not have a prolonged history but there is clear evidence that it has been gaining in recognition. The specific example of Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Chapter Two) is stimulating, as it has produced a substantial number of dissertations in the field of L2 writing in last 35 years. This chapter also reiterates the importance of matching the research interests of graduate students with advisors for the production of quality dissertations, as well as for future collaborations. Some of the authors’ own instances of successful working relations with their advisors and advisees provide real and practical examples. Tony Silva and Paul K. Matsuda, Paul K. Matsuda and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper, and Dan J. Tannacito and Karen A. Power are a few such names whose collaboration has extended to additional research projects. In Chapter 11, for example, Tony Silva and Tony Cimasko as former adviser-advisee share a collaboration highlighting issues related to the knowledge consumption-production journey of doctoral students.”
Regarding graduate students’ professional development journey while pursuing an academic degree, the advisor/advisee relation plays a prominent role. Almost all the chapters of this book are paired up with the authors’ former advisers or advisees. Once you finish any chapter, you will know either personal or professional information of the authors. Even though some issues may seem personal, like marriage, children, potlucks at home, Facebook posts, and conference awards, they are threaded with the professional journey. Matsuda (Chapter Six), for instance, states that he shares his students’ work on Facebook to encourage his students more in their research and writing. This chapter also emphasizes the professional importance of having a thorough understanding of your interest area, as well as time management, conference presentations, publications, and networking. Subsequently, there are certain strategies that you can adapt during this process of professionalization. For instance, it might be an ambitious job to read the available literature in a given amount of time. This book sheds some light on how a student can make her own strategies to be updated systematically on what is going on in her interest area.
While observing the nature of the doctoral programs, they do not exist at an individual level; rather they are set within societal and institutional contexts and they function with a complementary purpose. As the seven practical steps (i.e., shopping, investing, studying, researching, proposing, reporting, and establishing) highlighted in Chapter Four of this book are experiential reflections of an author, these steps can be secret mantras for each graduate student. Such reflections on the socio-academic experience are not only opportunities to see the writers’ interaction with the L2 writing community, but these discussions also tell how the writers’ journey was unique in the field of L2 writing. Chapter Five and Nine contain a few real email correspondence and feedback excerpts which were received from the authors’ mentors help figure out the context of the feedback from the realistic lens and also their horizon, type, and level. Such discussion can derive a significant realization and warning to be as productive and professional as possible because the banal remarks do not play any role in the writing process development; instead, writers need constructive feedback so that they become more committed and more critical on their own writing.
Having a well-established mentor-mentee relationship is a pressing issue so that you can arise the optimum benefits in an academic field. If a mentee portrays a major role to mold and advance her professional life, a mentor posits an equal position for making that happen. While traversing the graduate career, engaging in real professional activities that are associated with your career is a critical need. An experienced adviser involves her students in such activities in one or other way round. Similarly, mentors keep encouraging and motivating their mentees constructively in different modes. Matsuda (Chapter Six) further asserts that graduate students get frustrated when they do not get accepted at their first publication attempt and often do not realize that well-established writers often, including their professors, face similar challenges. Sharing such back-stage stories consoles and empowers the novice writers. The use of a password protected web space, which is detailed in Chapter Six, can let a large group of people share access to accepted and rejected manuscripts and conference proposals. While initiating any writing piece, struggling into the drafting phase is not an awkward sign; instead, it is a common tendency of even an eminent writer. As you face different circumstances in life, there is a chance that you lean towards either professional or personal life more, but there are ways to balance such issues (Chapter Six) with careful planning and even maintaining some time for the social media as part of the personal networking, sharing, and encouraging the professional work. In this regard, balancing the personal and professional life and maintaining a quality work may sound like a painstaking job but these are some primary concerns that any industrious academic would follow diligently, so that she paves her way to construct an identity in her desired field, including the interdisciplinary arena of the L2 writing.
In the case of doctoral students, they take two major roles during their entire PhD life and beyond: knowledge consumer and knowledge producer. Cimasko’s (Chapter XI) early discussion leads you to see the real picture of how you can find any particular program interesting and motivating, whereas Silva (in the same chapter) provides information about how PhD schools promote and find the best suitable students nationally and internationally. More specifically, Silva offers the example of Purdue University and its institutional development of the Second Language Studies program. In this way, you sometimes can feel that you are listening to two writing experts at a time speaking about the authors’ personal narratives, as well as the procedural development of their career as a PhD student, researcher, writer, advisee, or an advisor and their different strategies of planning, management, and the timely execution of those plans. Since the authors of this book themselves represent a diverse community as native, non-native, and Generation 1.5 individuals, the personal narratives or research works of Tannacito, Yang, Matsuda, Saenkhum, Ortmeier-Hooper, and Sarieva can be inspiring lessons for any perspective writers, doctoral students or even to the established professionals to keep their professional journey balanced with their personal life. In this sense, this is a sourcebook for any academic who is motivated to develop professionally. This book shares different behind-the-scene issues such as dealing with varied types of feedback, networking, best utilizing conference participation, and maintaining the different layers of identities that any student needs while pursuing a PhD or any faculty needs while advising graduate students.
During and even after the graduate students’ career, few minor issues may seem trivial on the trajectories of the initial academic life but in the meantime, they play a significant role in their professional career, such as choosing an advisor, utilizing the informal meetings, dealing with feedback, playing the mother’s/wife’s/husband’s role, maintaining the professional pursuit with the same spirit, and utilizing the accumulated insights to contribute to the larger community. Sarieva’s (Chapter Ten) shares the account of her professional development from national to international level that stems from her dissertation research process and conference presentations to multinational research projects. Ortmeier-Hooper’s narrative (Chapter Eight), on the other hand, provides a detailed depiction of how a professional plays the various identities of wife, mother, secondary teacher, teacher trainer, PhD student, researcher, writer, and professor.
On completion of your degree, there are tiny details to take notice while entering into the job market. The previously unheard personal narratives stated in Chapter Seven show how arduous it is to get the right job and for this how a candidate prepares to become a better job competitor. Therefore, applying for multiple job opportunities is essential. In addition to the job application, there are a lot of details to prepare. For instance, once you are invited for a job interview, certain strategies can boost your confidence. Reading all such accounts in Chapters Five, Seven, and Ten give the idea of how the prior work experience plays a substantial role. The experience of Saenkhum (Chapter Seven) doing a Writing Program Administration apprenticeship at Arizona State University brilliantly shows how it was an initial right step securing her tenure track position at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Subsequently, any academic faces diverse challenges to sustain in their position. For this, Saenkhum’s best suggested way is to take every day as a new day with a new challenge, then, you apparently prepare yourself to gain certain strategies that you need to adapt and successfully execute the expectations of your position. A few noteworthy examples she provides are as follows: Learning to say “no” in the professional context, forming a writing group, and/or separating a day for writing. In this way, the book Graduate Studies in Second Language (L2) Writing is an intersection between personal, professional, and institutional demands of graduate study in L2 writing, highlighting the constant negotiation that occurs at different stages of an academic career.
Reviewed by
Shyam Bahadur Pandey
Minnesota State University, Mankato
<shyam.pandey
mnsu.edu>
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