The presence of the researcher in the research paper

Guides to academic writing offer the Early Career Researcher a wealth of support in textual creation, for example in argument construction (Murray, 2019), grammar usage (Osmond, 2015), citation and referencing (Day, 2023), the achievement of cohesion and flow (Coleman, 2019), or the tackling of turgid prose (Thomson, 2022). But the ways in which a researcher might create and place themselves within these texts receives less attention, in spite of the fact that every writer must make nuanced decisions about the degree to which the figure of the researcher is foregrounded or effaced for readers.
Reflecting on recent experiences of thesis writing, and touching on issues of identity, authority and subjectivity, this paper explores the differing ways in which that a textual self might be brought into being in writing by the developing researcher. Contrasting examples will be used to discuss the different ways in which that self might be made to appear or disappear, and to probe the implications of such choices for the researcher and their sense of their relationship with their projected reader.
My interest in the development of researcher authority in textual forms stems from my work in schools and Universities. As a teacher of Secondary English, teacher educator at PGCE and Masters levels, and recent doctoral graduate, I draw on experience of textual analysis and construction and its teaching from a range of overlapping contexts and positions. My doctoral research involved a probing of the ways in which student authority in the literary essay is framed in the school classroom; my work with trainee English teachers includes exploration of the ways in which student identity can be overwritten or commuted in the school essay; at Masters’ level, I support teachers writing up research projects as they ‘systematically identify their subjectivity throughout the course of their research’ (Peshkin, 1988, 17).
These experiences have led me to the belief that in teaching academic writing at all levels, the construction of a textual self should not be overlooked as if it were a by-product of textual production. It should instead be a central aspect of its negotiation. I make a case for greater attention to be paid to study of the researcher in the research text, in order to help new researchers recognise the range of approaches and devices available to them as they create and fortify themselves and their ideas in their work.
References
Coleman, H. (2019) Polish your Academic Writing (Super Quick Skills). SAGE
Day, T. (2023) Success in Academic Writing. 3rd edition. Bloomsbury Academic
Murray, R. (2019) Writing for Academic Journals. 4th edition. McGraw-Hill Education
Nelson, C. D. (2005) “Crafting Researcher Subjectivity in ways that Enact Theory.” Journal of Language, Identity & Education. 2005, 4 (4), 315-320.
Osmond, A. (2015) Academic writing and grammar for students. 2nd edition. SAGE
Peshkin, A. (1988) In search of subjectivity – one’s own. Educational Researcher, October 1988, Vol. 17, 17-21.
Thomson, P. (2022) Refining Your Academic Writing: Strategies for Reading, Revising and Rewriting (Insider Guides to Success in Academia). Routledge