Challenges and Support in Writing for a Professional Postgraduate Degree: Students’ Perspectives.

This paper examines the perceptions of students reading for Industrial Masters and Industrial Doctorate degrees regarding how practice-based research differs from academic research, the writing challenges they faced and strategies they adopted to overcome them, and the use of AI tools in their writing of a practice-based research proposal. Data was collected via an end-of-module online survey in a 13-week formal pass/fail no credit module with the writing faculty taking on the role of participant-observer. The findings show that most students were not aware about the differences between practice-based research and academic research. Practice-based research was more informative, succinct, and template-based while academic research required critique of literature and the formation of theoretical underpinnings. Furthermore, the writing challenges students faced were mainly in presenting their problem statement not just to their work context but also to literature, connecting the literature they found to their own study and presenting it as one coherent story, and determining the level of detail and appropriate method to explain and justify their data collection and analysis procedures. Through reflections, feedback from writing faculty and self-analysis of journal samples, students learned what qualified as ‘academic’ in research-based writing and found their voice and identity as practitioner-researchers. This epistemological shift from a practitioner to a practitioner-researcher, however, could be seen more clearer only in the last two weeks of the trimester. Thus, it is a gradual process which cannot be rushed. AI tools have also been found to be useful in helping students grasp the key points when reading journal articles and to organize their writing. Thus, the use of AI tools could be encouraged when used responsibly. It is suggested that writing faculty adopt a coaching approach in supporting students’ writing process in practice-based research. Writing faculty could also reinforce to students that the writing process is a recursive process and thus revisions should be seen as part of the journey of discovery with the aim of getting a clearer direction for their research. The potential of AI tools in supporting students in their writing process is promising and could be further explored.