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]