Doctoral writing markets : exploring the grey zone

The growing diversity of the doctoral research student population is placing increasing pressure, both material and pedagogical, on institutional resources to support student writing. At the same time, expectations for doctoral students to produce numerous written outputs that demonstrate advanced competence in academic English throughout candidature place them under increasing pressure. This confluence of factors has been paralleled by a growth in the provision of noninstitutionally based writing support services specifically aimed at doctoral students to help them with their writing. Many of these services are offered online; operating transnationally they are largely unmonitored – influencing and impacting doctoral writing practices in unknown and often unacknowledged ways. This chapter reports on an analysis of 158 online writing support provider sites and data from follow-up interviews and surveys. The study shows the existence of numerous “quasi markets” with suppliers ranging from reputable editing and writer development services to a large number of suspect “doctoral writing support services” offering more questionable services. It confirms that little is known about the individuals offering and taking up these services. It also confirms that there is considerable fuzziness in regard to the ethical and educational legitimacy of accessing external help for writing the doctoral thesis.