Working with tensions : writing for publication during your doctorate

This chapter outlines a set of tensions and dilemmas that we think are central to the concerns of graduate students setting out to publish from their doctoral research. We believe that getting published is not just a matter of practical know-how and skill but is more fundamentally a matter of clarifYing and working through a subtle, perhaps less obvious, set of issues. Doctoral students undertaking writing for publication face issues such as a sense of insufficient understanding of the field of study, feelings of uncertainty as novice researchers and writers, and concerns about balancing out time to write the dissertation and other publications. Our research has demonstrated that behind these lie other sets of tensions that revolve around the risks and rewards of publishing during the time of writing the dissertation. We recognize the interplay of a complex range of professional and personal factors that give rise to questions such as, "Who are we?" and, "Who do we wish to become as published authors?" "How do we write with the right kind of authority?" and "What scholarly and professional communities do we seek to join?