Table Of ContentWriting Up Your Action Research Project
Many practice-based researchers have expert knowledge of doing research
but often experience difficulties when writing it up and communicating the
significance of what they have done. This book aims to help bridge the gap.
Packed with practical advice and strong theoretical resources, it takes you
through the basics of designing and producing your text so that it will meet
established standards and high quality assurance expectations.
The book is divided into three distinct parts, and key points include:
• understanding writing practices;
• engaging with the literatures;
• how to write up a project report or dissertation;
• how writing is judged in terms of professional and academic writing
practices;
• developing ideas for further study and publication.
Writing Up Your Action Research Projectis an essential text for practitioners
on professional education and undergraduate courses across disciplines
who want their writing to reflect the excellence of their research. It is the
ideal companion to the author’s You and Your Action Research Project,now in
its fourth edition.
Jean McNiffis Professor of Educational Research at York St John University,
UK. She also holds visiting professorial positions at Beijing Normal University
and Ningxia Teachers University, People’s Republic of China, and Oslo and
Akershus University College, Norway. She has written widely on action
research and professional education.
Jean also offers writing workshops and support on doing and writing
practice-based research across disciplines and professions. She can be contact-
ed at [email protected] and through her website at www.jeanmcniff.com.
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Writing Up Your Action Research Project
Jean McNiff
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 J. McNiff
The right of J. McNiff to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice:Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978–1–138–82831–5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978–1–138–82832–2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978–1–315–73849–9 (ebk)
Typeset in Palatino
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1 Prologue: what do I need to know about action research?
Why do I need to know it? 11
PARTI
Designing and planning your text 35
2 Getting ready to write: designing and planning 39
3 What goes into your text? How do you communicate
with your reader? 61
4 Developing communicative competence: writing for
a reader 78
PARTII
Writing and producing a text 97
5 Learning to be a writer: engaging with the
literatures 99
6 Learning to produce a text: the writing process 114
7 How do I write an action research report or master’s
dissertation? 128
vi Contents
PARTIII
Reflecting and evaluating 153
8 How is the quality of an action research text judged? 155
9 The significance of your writing 172
10 Where now? 187
References 190
Index 200
Illustrations
FIGURES
0.1 Design transforms into communication 5
1.1 The interrelationship of parts with one another and with
the whole 13
1.2 Cycle of action, reflection and modified action 27
1.3 Visual to represent a generative transformational evolutionary
system 31
P.1 Embedded and emergent processes involved in writing a text 38
3.1 Telling is embedded within, and unfolds into, communication 63
3.2 Levels of adequacy and the relationship between different
‘I’s in your text 66
7.1 Mutually reciprocal transformational relationships 144
TABLES
P.1 Different conceptual spaces for different purposes 36
2.1 SWOT analysis of writing strengths and limitations 55
2.2 Self-audit of personal and professional capacities 55
3.1 From knowledge telling to knowledge transforming: from
story to communication 63
3.2 From telling to communicating 72
6.1 Timeline for completing text in 3 months 119
6.2 Notional action plan for completing text in 3 weeks 120
6.3 Questions to ask yourself when writing your text for a reader 123
7.1 Contents of a conventional social science report 130
7.2 Working through an action enquiry 137
8.1 European Qualifications Framework levels 158
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to many people involved in the writing of this book.
First, thanks to all colleagues who are happy to have their works
reproduced here. Books get written and new directions forged through the
power of working together. Thanks to all.
Then, thanks to Philip Mudd at Routledge Education, for his encourage-
ment, friendship and kindness over the years. Thanks also to the editorial
and production staff for the hard work of putting it all together.
And thanks to Peter, the nicest companion anyone could wish for. Lucky
me.
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in
thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
Psalm 19:14
Introduction
This book is about writing up your action research project. It is written
for practitioners across disciplines, professions and work contexts who are
studying on professional education courses, on work-based learning courses
and on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including for master’s
degrees. The book is also written for lecturers and tutors delivering these
courses. Advanced scholars, too, may find it useful as a core foundation text.
It is the second of two books. The first, You and Your Action Research Project
(McNiff, 2016), is about doing an action research project: it outlines the ‘what,
who, when, where, which, how and why’ of doing action research. This
second book, the one you are reading, is about writing up the action research
project described in the first book: it outlines the ‘what, who, when, where,
which, how and why’ of writing. Both books are about researching your
practices in action. The first is about researching your practice as a nurse, a
builder or an engineer; the second is about researching your practice as
a writer. Learning to write becomes an action enquiry within a broader action
enquiry.
Many people often do not appreciate the importance of writing as a practice
that may be researched in itself: some see it as an add-on, something done
after the event. They also assume that the writing will somehow just happen,
which is seldom the case. Good-quality writing involves developing specific
knowledges, capacities and skills. Further, you write from the first moment
you begin a project. Learning to write well is essential to your success and to
having your work taken seriously. This is important: you can do the most
excellent action research project in the world, but, unless you communicate
it appropriately, your reader may not appreciate what you have done, so
possibly will not take your work seriously. Therefore, if you feel your writing
could be improved, you have to work at it and learn how to do it better.
This is where some people begin to experience doubts: they say, ‘I am
not a writer: I cannot write’. This is never the case: everyone can write, and
write well, provided they put in some effort and learn how to do it. You can
do this too; success does involve effort, but it is perfectly achievable. It means
studying your practice as a writer and finding ways to improve it. This means
that you study two aspects of your practice at the same time. First you ask,
‘How do I improve my practice as a nurse, or a builder, or an engineer?’, and,
at the same time, you ask, ‘How do I improve my practice as a writer?’ Your
desk becomes a research context as much as your other workplace contexts.
