Writing Education Research. Guidelines for Publishable Scholarship

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Book Review Details

Book Review Authors

Dr. Rachel Shanks

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In writing this book review I feel I should follow the advice clearly laid out in the book. So, I will be telling you why you should read this book, what you may find useful and what, if anything, detracts from it.

Unsurprisingly, given the subject matter, this book is well-written and extremely well-structured throughout. It provides clear and concise advice. The authors practise what they preach, for example, setting out what each chapter will cover at the beginning and then providing a conclusion at the end. The book begins with an overview of writing and publishing in education and the authors are happy to inform us that this was at the suggestion of a reviewer. The book is laid out in the order they suggest one should approach writing, namely: manuscript introduction and purpose; review of the literature and theoretical framework; research questions, participants, and context; data collection, data analysis, and limitations; presenting results and discussion; writing conclusions and implications; title, abstract, and responding to reviewers.

There are recommended resources to consult and each chapter ends with exercises, called guided practice, to follow which early career researchers and/or any stage writers would find beneficial. The recommended resources are well-chosen and detailed information is provided on each one so that the reader can make an informed decision about which to look up. There are videos, books and papers to refer to for this more detailed advice. There are also language note boxes and examples in each of the chapters which are useful, for example on how to phrase your literature review and findings sections. The appendices provide example of papers that are referred to in the exercises at the end of each chapter. Of most interest to this reader were the extracts of reviews the authors and others had received – a very useful way to show the need for work in all areas of article writing.

I would suggest this book is essential reading to anyone starting out in writing and publishing education research or anyone who wishes to improve their output, receive kinder feedback from reviewers and increase their success rate in having their work published. In addition, this book will be of use to those writing research reports, dissertations and PhD theses as well as for those writing journal articles and book chapters. If you have someone asking you what to get you as a present then I would recommend adding this title to your wish list.

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