Writing the qualitative dissertation: what motivates and sustains commitment to a fuzzy genre?

Abstract

Several L2 literacy specialists, for example, Flowerdew [Flowerdew, J. (1999). Problems in writing for scholarly publication in English: The case of Hong Kong. Journal of Second Language Writing, 8, 243–264], has pointed out that L2 writers may consciously avoid adopting qualitative research methods, undoubtedly because of the challenges that such a self-reflexive, rhetorically complex, and generically unstable research report mode poses. Those who advise L2 graduate students may wonder if these students should be discouraged from using qualitative methods. The goal of this qualitative study was to determine what initially motivates L2 doctoral dissertation writers to adopt a qualitative approach and what sustains their commitment to it. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation orientations were found in the self reports of these successful L2 qualitative dissertation writers, as were strong philosophical commitment to their research paradigm and intense intellectual curiosity about their topics. Some students, however, were more research paradigm-driven, while others were more topic-driven, but none perceived their status as L2 users as an insurmountable obstacle to success as qualitative dissertation writers.