Improving personal voice in academic writing: an action inquiry using self-reflective practice

This paper describes the author’s experience of using self-reflective practice within an action inquiry in order to improve both her personal practice in engaging in academic writing and her work as a teacher educator. As such, the study could be viewed as an example of simultaneous first- and second-person action inquiry. The focus is on the expression of the author’s voice in academic writing with specific reference to the use of the passive and active voice and the first person pronoun ‘I’. The reflective process illustrates the author’s considerable uncertainty about personal voice, while supporting an emerging understanding of her own writing practice and her role in relation to supporting student writing. It is suggested that self-reflective practice can uncover some of the complexities of this writing and educational phenomenon and the social processes in which it is situated. A dual font approach is adopted with italic font used to present personal reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]; Copyright of Reflective Practice is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)