Workshop Dates: 3 – 9 October 2021
Venue: Wits Rural Facility, Acornhoek Mpumalanga
The Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment at Wits Business School hosted a PhD Writing Retreat for approximately 30 PhD students across Africa. The writing retreat included both workshops and presentations of paper/proposals by successful applicants.
All registered PhD students at the Wits Business School and across African universities were cordially invited to apply to participate in a Writing and Methodology Workshop. To apply, students were required to submit the following documents:
- A motivation letter indicating how the workshop would be beneficial
- Proof of registration from their University
- Letter of support from their supervisor
- Their current research proposal/ draft thesis
The workshop had the following objectives:
- Improving writing skills
- Planning and developing each chapter
- Developing research questions and conceptual frameworks
- Writing the problem statement
- Planning the literature review
- Developing the research methodology – quantitative and qualitative
- Individual coaching on your own research study
- Ethical considerations and preparing for ethical clearance
- Writing for academic journals
- Project management for the thesis
Winners of Presentations
The final day of the retreat allowed the students to present their thesis work and they were assessed on the following criteria:
- A well-defined research problem substantive contribution to knowledge
- Sound and appropriate use of theory and methodology
- Comprehensive Methods
- Ability to use technical and academic language
- Ability to engage with the audience
Our winners and their topics were:
