Research

Professional support staff set to contribute to the academic discourse

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PRG researchers with interdisciplinary scholars who facilitated the sessions

The Professional Research Group (PRG) researchers attended the second Professional Research Committee (PRC) Writers’ Retreat that took place at Kievits Kroon Wine Estate in Pretoria, a tranquil location for the stimulation of ideas to draft articles and abstracts.

As part of the Research Support Directorate, PRC has created development opportunities such as the writers’ retreat, specifically for PRG researchers who are working on research projects, with the objective of producing outputs that will contribute to the scholarly discourse.

“Our role as PRC is to provide the space, support and guidance to PRG researchers to finalise their journal articles before submission and consideration to journals for publication,” says Amisha Benode, PRC’s programmes and projects officer.

Writing for an accredited journal

Emanating from the successful outcome of having six out of seven journal articles published from the first PRC writers’ retreat, the bar has been set high for PRG researchers in advancing research – Unisa’s second core area of business – through publications.

The PRC writers’ retreat provided participants with an opportunity to engage with interdisciplinary scholars Professor Puleng Segalo, Professor Lesiba Teffo and Dr Sipho Makgopa, who are experienced in academic writing.

This meant lessons learnt on topics such as argument formulation, the structure of journal articles and technical details of compiling an abstract could be tackled immediately thanks to the distraction-free setting write.

On the last day of the writers’ retreat, the researchers were given the opportunity to present their full draft articles and abstracts and then received comments and recommendations. Most of the researchers have completed their papers and four finalised articles have already been submitted to journals for publication.

Dr Leslie Adriaanse, a PRG researcher presenting her abstract.

These are the PRG researchers whose journal articles have been fine-tuned for publication:

  1. Dr Leslie Adriaanse – Personal Librarian
  2. Dr Shahieda Jansen – Deputy Director: Academic Support
  3. Dr Phumza Makgato-Khunou – Head of the Centre for Professional Development
  4. Dr Master Maebane – Administrative Officer: Tuition and Facilitation of Learning
  5. Thabo Modibedi – Tutorial Officer: Deputy Registrar Student Affairs and Regional Services, Gauteng
  6. Dr Anneke Venter – Education Consultant
  7. Dr Zwelakhe Cebisa – Regional Academic Coordinator

In January 2022, PRC received the sad news of the passing of Dr Zwelakhe Cebisa, who participated in the writers’ retreat. May his soul rest in peace and our condolences to his family.

* By Mpho Moloele, PR and Communications, Department of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation

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Publish date: 2022-03-11 00:00:00.0