The British, like the Germans, tended to see themselves as embodying a set of virtues, which the Poles might be encouraged to imitate. The British, however, were uniform in interpreting Polish shortcomings as a result of the previous system of central planning. For example:

But that’s the characteristics of all the former COMECON economies, whenever there is much tougher competition they say that’s too difficult (H2_UK).

[…]We were late, we thought we were looking at a ready made facility, but it was lacking in international safety standards, it was run in the old communist way (H4_UK).

The British perceived the Poles to be in a process of rapid mental transformation, as the shadows of central planning disappeared.

[…] [Poles] are moving from ‘write me a rule’ people, from one type of society to another (K1_UK).

(Chapman, M., Gajewska-De Mattos, H., Clegg, J. & Buckley, P. J. (2008). Close neighbours and distant friends: Perceptions of cultural distance. International Business Review, 17, 217–234.)

Campbell (1997) refers to an angle as a “perspective that dominates a story”. In our study, research and writing was reported as always being guided by an angle. It was described as a “thrust” or “driving force” of an assignment – the new “twist” or “hook” that directs the story. An angle was also described as a proposition or statement. In the following extract one journalist relates this idea to the tragic events of the 11 September.

To start off with, there was the straight reporting of facts: a plane has hit the World Trade Center, then a second plane has hit the WTC … The default angle is “what has happened” … (QC).

Most notably though, an angle was often presented as a hypothesis or conjecture about something suspected of being the case, and this is one sense in which it can be understood as motivating subsequent information seeking. QC continued:

But this soon develops, the new “angle” comes into play. I remember on the day that by the time of the second plane, I and others were saying “This must be an act of terrorism, bemuse this is not coincidental, an accident …”. So had I been writing the story, I would have begun building up information to support my hypothesis that the acts of September 11 were terrorism. The standard journalistic questions of who, what, why, when, how would have been asked about the events against the backdrop of my hypothesis of terrorism.

And he summarises:

Essentially there is an angle to all news and features; it is really a working hypothesis that translates the gathered facts, which may include some speculation, into a coherent account (QC).

(Attfield, S. & Dowell, J. (2003). Information seeking and use by newspaper journalists. Journal of Documentation, 59(2), 87-204.)

Interestingly, above CJ indicated that originality checking is only one reason for this initial search. In many of the accounts of search activity, interviewees described pursuing multiple concurrent information goals. In the following, MG describes extending this initial search motivated by the goal of developing a better personal understanding of an issue:

Obviously, the main interest is whether it has been in a British newspaper … but I like to know whether it has been in the LA Times and the cutting might well tell you something useful anyway … it might give you background on the stories … things in the background that are not apparent to you when you are looking at the thing to write a story …

And in the following extract, DI describes integrating originality checking with the gathering of potential content that she might later include in her copy[1]:

… the first thing you do is go into your database … to find out if a similar story’s been written before … and erm … just to see maybe if another story’s touched on it in the past, say, that you can pull out bits from that and add it to your story.

In the model we present below, we show that alongside the goal of originality checking, the goals of constructing a personal understanding and generating potential content are active during the preparation phase of the assignment.

(Attfield, S. & Dowell, J. (2003). Information seeking and use by newspaper journalists. Journal of Documentation, 59(2), 87-204.)

The British respondents, by contrast, sought explanation of their Polish counterparts in the legacy of communism. Here is a British manager on the centralised nature of older Polish organisational structures:

In our company in Warsaw, where everyone has e-mail, fax, it’s very easy to communicate with everyone from the senior management to the shop floor. In the old state owned company there was only one fax in the office of the managing director, and everything had to go through him. We were trying to show that if it works well in ‘Company I–Poland’ it could also work there [in Poznan] (I1_UK).

(Chapman, M., Gajewska-De Mattos, H., Clegg, J. & Buckley, P. J. (2008). Close neighbours and distant friends: Perceptions of cultural distance. International Business Review, 17, 217–234.)

Developing personal understanding

In our study, interviewees emphasised the importance of developing their personal understanding of an issue to support further information seeking and also to provide their readers with an informed interpretation of events. A science correspondent described the importance of background research in preparation for an interview:

I certainly wouldn’t like to have spoken to him without having researched the subject before, because I didn’t know anything about it and I wouldn’t have known the questions to ask (GQ).

Developing a better personal understanding also facilitated more focused information seeking with respect to online cuttings archives. A junior news journalist said:

It’s a question of finding out key points … and then using Lexis[2] to investigate them further. You can home in on a particular issue (RK).

On background information facilitating an informed interpretation, MG said:

It just puts the whole thing in context and enables you to interpret the latest story in the light of what’s gone before … But you don’t always have that knowledge yourself, so you have to acquire it from somewhere else.

(Attfield, S. & Dowell, J. (2003). Information seeking and use by newspaper journalists. Journal of Documentation, 59(2), 87-204.)

Though everyone said that intradivision relationships were the key topic to address, the team could not agree on a goal for the retreat and spent the first half of its life describing and rejecting a series of ideas. Statements 1-3 of the following excerpt show how little concrete progress the team had made halfway through its calendar….

Excerpt 6 (E6). The hospital administrators hold their fifth meeting, in the sixth week of a 12-week span.

1. 1. Bernard (to Bill, just before the meeting): I’m gonna bring Tom [the division chief] to the next meeting, Bill. . . . Last time we were struggling like we are here – Tom [really helped] to sort things out . . . .
   2. Bernard (convening meeting): . . . I think we need to . . . brainstorm about [the program] – see what we might come up with, and bounce it off Tom next time. (He recaps an idea he brought to the previous meeting.)
   3. Sandra: We’d each be responsible for an hour of the program? As facilitators, or role playing – whatever we decided to do?
      (Later in the meeting, there was a dramatic shift in the discussion when Nancy described a management simulation program on the problems of middle managers, run by a consultant who worked nearby.)
   4. Sandra: If awareness is all that comes out of the day . . . I think that’s a good – a reasonable goal.

(Gersick, C. J. G. (1988). Time and transition in work teams: Toward a new model of group development. The Academy of Management Journal, 31, 9-41)

Even long blocks of uninterrupted time were not recognized as opportunities for deep concentration because they were not designated as such ahead of time. Only in retrospect did engineers know that they just had an extended period of time to accomplish substantive individual work. As one engineer described, “I am constantly looking over my shoulder, fearing that someone is about to throw something at me.” Another engineer explained, “Working on Saturdays is much more productive …. I can sit down and work without always worrying that something is about to sidetrack me.”

(Perlow, L. A. (1999). The time famine: Toward a sociology of work time. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(1) , 57-81.)

Engineers complained that crises continuously arose. From their perspective a crisis was anything that had to be done urgently, taking time away from the work that they would have “normally” done to make progress on their individual deliverables. One engineer explained, “Every Sunday night I used to make a ‘to do’ list for the week. By Monday morning I was already off schedule. I ended up feeling so bad about it, I just decided the list wasn’t worth it.” Another engineer complained, “I can hardly get my coat off before the crises start…. Every morning my priorities seem to shift.”

(Perlow, L. A. (1999). The time famine: Toward a sociology of work time. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(1) , 57-81.)

Factors will likely vary in degrees of importance and priority from institution to institution and department to department. It behooves the administration of any particular institution, college, or department to know who their graduate students are. The graduate students themselves are likely to appreciate it. In this current study, there was much positive feedback from the students in the department of Educational Leadership and Counseling who participated in the study. Their comments were indicative of their belief that the department and faculty were interested in connecting. The following are excerpts from those responses.

“I am so glad that I took the time to answer the survey questions. Those questions further reinforced my purpose for obtaining my master’s degree. I hadn’t been asked to think about how my family has influenced my decision to go back to school. Yes, they are constantly in the forefront of any decisions I make, but as I answered those questions, I was forced to evaluate what I am doing. Am I doing what’s best for me and my family? How will obtaining a graduate level degree help me? The survey questions made me think about my values, my children and husband and parents, and what obtaining this degree will mean for my future and theirs as well. I also reflected on how important it has been for me to be taking these graduate classes with three of my colleagues. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I would be as focused or motivated to finish. They, along with my family, have become my driving force to accomplish this goal that I’ve had since I was 19 years old” (female graduate student).

“I feel very honored to get to voice my opinion on matters concerning grad school. I have had a very rewarding experience at TAMUK. I am a full time teacher and football coach and spend a lot of time on the job. TAMUK does their program in a way that my job and post graduate work can both win. I have never felt the courses I have taken have been a burden at all. Yes, they have taken some considerable time but it has always felt rewarding to do so. I have recommended this program to many others because of the great job your staff does” (male graduate student).

“As I am sure you already know, I believe the crucial factor in my success has been instructors that care, understand, and are involved with my education” (female graduate student).

“I just completed the survey. The content of the survey was important and made me feel like my opinions do matter to the university” (female graduate student).

“Throughout my graduate courses in which I have received a Master’s in Early Childhood, completed all course work for a Master’s in Administration (I just did not take the research classes) I have never sat down with an Advisor to take a look at a degree plan. Do not get me wrong I did have a degree plan signed and given to me although I just pretty much did it on my own. With the Counseling and Guidance I have felt a bit more supportive with my plan, and I can see that it is getting better” (female graduate student).

“After reading the consent to take the survey I was very pleased with the privacy and the reason behind the survey. As a graduate student it’s good to see professors trying to better things for the future students” (female graduate student).

While completing the survey I realized how much of an accomplishment is was for me to complete graduate school. At first it was something I wanted to do because it was the “next step.” I then realized that I wanted to do it for my family. I was the first in my family to complete college and so far have been the only one. I want to set higher standards for my children that way they can be successful as well. Most of the questions on the survey I had to strongly agree to. Family, religion, financial aid, professors, online/hybrid courses are just a few that really made graduating graduate school an attainable goal for me” (female graduate student).

(Bain, S., Fedynich, L. & Knight, M. (2009.) The successful graduate student: A review of the factors for success. Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, 3)

The strong desire to uphold design priorities on large-scale projects involved considerable personal struggles for participants:

 they want to start building…and we’re still developing the design…that’s how a lot of the problems start…then it feels like we’re playing catch up…they build so fast…things go up overnight…clients just don’t get it. (project architect, Firm 2)

For some, the ‘constant battles’ with clients’ priorities, often concerned with speed, costs and area of lettable space, versus architects’ professional values led to disappointments over their chosen career:

 we [architects] insist upon aesthetics…any excuse to do something interesting…but clients have other priorities… that’s stressful…. that keeps me up at night. (senior associate, Firm 4)

When discussing their interactions with clients, respondents described their clients as, ‘experts’, ‘sophisticated’, and ‘savvy’. For example:

[our clients] are sophisticated developer types…you know like they have…MBAs from Harvard. (senior associate, Firm 1)

(Ahuja, S., Nikolova, N. & Clegg, S. (2019). Professional identity and anxiety in architect-client interactions. Construction Management & Economics, 38(7), 589-602,)

First Meeting and Phase 1

Almost immediately, in every team studied, members displayed the framework through which they approached their projects for the first half of their calendar time. Excerpts show the scope, variety, and nature of those frameworks.

Excerpt 1 (E1). A team of three graduate management students start their first, five-minute encounter to plan work on a group case assignment, defined by the professor as an organizational design problem.⁴

1. 1. Jack: We should try to read the [assigned] material.
   2. Rajeev: But this isn’t an organizational design problem, it’s a strategic planning problem.
   3. (Jack and Bert agree.)
   4. Rajeev: I think what we have to do is prepare a way of growth [for the client].
   5. (Nods, “yes” from Jack and Bert.)

Excerpt 1, representing less than one minute from the very start of a team’s life, gives a clear view of the opening framework. The team’s approach toward its organizational context (the professor and his requirements) is plain. The members are not going to read the material; they disagree with the professor’s definition of the task and will define their project to suit themselves.

(Gersick, C. J. G. (1988). Time and transition in work teams: Toward a new model of group development. The Academy of Management Journal, 31, 9-41)

The follow-up interviews indicated that the six students felt that they had not only improved but also gained confidence in writing emails in English; these observations can be seen in the following accounts by Keiko and Eri:

[1] Before taking this class, I did not have opportunities to write emails in English. So I didn’t know what they looked like, and my vocabulary choices were quite limited. However, as I read and analyzed a variety of email samples in this writing class, I learned some guidelines to draw upon and was able to develop my vocabulary choices. The increasing choices allowed me to see email writing as very enjoyable and to become confident in writing in English. (Keiko)

[2] Because I had no tools to refer to for email writing, I was very much afraid of email-writing activities when this course started. However, as I learned a variety of contexts for using the words that I had already known, I realized that email writing is not as difficult as had first thought. Above all, I found it very interesting to get a response from the reader of my email about what I wrote. This inspired me to write more and communicate more without being afraid of making mistakes. (Eri)

Extracts [1] and [2] provide an interesting insight into the nature of confidence and its relation to genre knowledge development. Both students recognize benefits gained in relation to confidence, but they experience this benefit for different reasons. Keiko’s confidence was increased due to her improved knowledge of language choices, while Eri gained confidence due to her improved sense of audience. The results suggest that these types of benefits may not happen concurrently for the same individuals; the type of benefits received may depend on an individual’s approach to writing and the factors considered when completing the genre-based tasks.

(Yasuda, S. (20110. Genre-based tasks in foreign language writing: Developing writers’ genre awareness, linguistic knowledge, and writing competence. Journal of Second Language Writing, 20, 111–133.)

Excerpt 7 (E7). The following comes from an interview with the hospital team’s leader:

He says “Do what you want. Spend what you want.” Then he came to the damn meeting and was worried about money! Giving me mixed signals! That’s when I decided, I’m gonna spend what I want and make my own decisions … .

By the time the division chief met with the team, the decision to hire the facilitator – the largest expense – had already been made. It was “too late” to be “worried about money,” and the team never checked its budget with the chief.

(Gersick, C. J. G. (1988). Time and transition in work teams: Toward a new model of group development. The Academy of Management Journal, 31, 9-41)

The following is a response to post 2, which clearly shows the “thesis-details” pattern:

1. 3. teacher is to initiate spirit for me, i think that teacher is to initiate spirit. We have learned so many years. Now we know the method to grasp knowledge and the criterion to found our own moral. What we really need is the spirit to bestir us forward, a spirit lead us to pursue science and truth (SABRINAR)

The respondent, SABRINAR, first states the main point in the subject line as well as in the beginning of the body text, “for me, I think that teacher is to intiate spirit.” Then the respondent explains the reasons why a teacher needs to kindle the spirit of intellectual pursuit in students.

(You, X. (2008). Rhetorical strategies, electronic media and China English. World Englishes, 27, 133-149)

I would not use public transport in the evening because the kids go to swimming and football which are miles apart (GD)

The bus is an extension of my social club really, all my friends are on the bus and we talk a lot, it’s also cheaper than getting a taxi to and from town you know (Interview 15).

When interviewing Mrs. Smith, she indicated how she handles her small business. (See Appendix A).

The British respondents, by contrast, sought explanation of their Polish counterparts in the legacy of communism. Here is a British manager on the centralised nature of older Polish organisational structures:

In our company in Warsaw, where everyone has e-mail, fax, it’s very easy to communicate with everyone from the senior management to the shop floor. In the old state-owned company there was only one fax in the office of the managing director, and everything had to go through him. We were trying to show that if it works well in ‘Company I–Poland’ it could also work there [in Poznan] (I1_UK).

Chapman, M., Gajewska-De Mattos, H., Clegg, J. & Buckley, P. J. (2008). Close neighbours and distant friends: Perceptions of cultural distance. International Business Review, 17, 217–234.

In the critique that Gabrielle had written, she had cited many of the sources listed as recommended readings in the course outline. Gabrielle explained:

We were also going to present our critiques to the class as a whole, and I wanted to be prepared for the questions that the professor or other students might ask. I also wanted to show that I had actually put time into the paper and read more than what everybody else had read in the course pack. (Gabrielle’s interview, March 2004).

(Abasi, A.R., Akbari, N. & Graves, B. (2006). Discourse appropriation, construction of identities, and the complex issue of plagiarism: ESL students writing in graduate school. Journal of Second Language Writing, 15, 102–117.)

Many teachers, for instance, felt that reading published EAP research was not a priority, as they were interested in and committed to engagement with research in their original disciplinary area (i.e., TESOL). Other reasons that limited their reading of EAP research were the lack of time, issues of access, and perceived lack of relevance of research to the teachers’ own contexts. This was evident in the following comments from Phase One of the study:

Recently, research topics have become so narrowly focused and specialized that I do not see how they can be used to inform practice (T36)..

I have had a lot of problems applying the findings of EAP papers to my practice. They [i.e., academic researchers] are not familiar with the problems we face in the Iranian context. Instead, I generally rely on EAP textbooks to gain ideas for my teaching (T74).

(Bahrami, V., Hosseini, M. & Atai, M. R. (2019). Exploring research-informed practice in English for academic purposes: A narrative study. English for Specific Purposes, 54, 152-165.)

Excerpt 7 (E7). The following comes from an interview with the hospital team’s leader:

He says “Do what you want. Spend what you want.” Then he came to the damn meeting and was worried about money! Giving me mixed signals! That’s when I decided, I’m gonna spend what I want and make my own decisions … .

By the time the division chief met with the team, the decision to hire the facilitator – the largest expense – had already been made. It was “too late” to be “worried about money,” and the team never checked its budget with the chief.

(Gersick, C. J. G. (1988). Time and transition in work teams: Toward a new model of group development. The Academy of Management Journal, 31, 9-41)

Looking for information to support an angle was often expressed as the task of looking for supporting facts and figures. CJ said:

My job is to look into it to see whether their [the editor’s] ideas are right, or if they have got the right end of the stick, and to try and find enough facts and evidence to backup their idea.

Furthermore, QL, a features writer, said:

… you’re then all the time sifting the facts to see whether they’ll go into that scheme (the angle).

(Attfield, S. & Dowell, J. (2003). Information seeking and use by newspaper journalists. Journal of Documentation, 59(2), 87-204.)

A science correspondent described the importance of background research in preparation for an interview:

I certainly wouldn’t like to have spoken to him without having researched the subject before, because I didn’t know anything about it and I wouldn’t have known the questions to ask (GQ).

Developing a better personal understanding also facilitated more focused information seeking with respect to online cuttings archives. A junior news
journalist said:

It’s a question of finding out key points . . . and then using Lexis[2] to investigate them further. You can home in on a particular issue (RK).

On background information facilitating an informed interpretation, MG said:

It just puts the whole thing in context and enables you to interpret the latest story in the light of what’s gone before . . . But you don’t always have that knowledge yourself, so you have to acquire it from somewhere else.

(Attfield, S. & Dowell, J. (2003). Information seeking and use by newspaper journalists. Journal of Documentation, 59(2), 87-204.)

Ignatius developed this schema further, probably drawing on the same biology lessons but also referring to what he had seen in the countryside around his home. His written response was, “Hybrids are some kinds of plant that need insects for their fertilization and which are planted by birds,” and when we talked about it, he proffered this explanation:

Because I have seen some plants hanging on other like cactus. I once saw it in a position it was not supposed to be. I asked someone and he tell me maybe a bird plant the seed. . . . It was on a baobab tree.

Gregory, too, developed a rich interpretation from this schema, as he told me during his interview:

Hybrids are those trees that resulted from the seed being carried away or being planted. . . . I am differentiating it from those that are being cut before planting . . . though I don’t know the meaning of this hybrid. I just derive the meaning from the passage.

(Parry, K. (1996). Culture, literacy, and L2 reading. TESOL Quarterly, 30(4), 665-692)

When asked about their satisfaction with their accommodation, Student A pointed out:

My accommodation is very nice, It is clean and warm and I have easy access to all the facilities I need…

Whereas Student B disagreed:

I am not very happy with the accommodation. It is small, the facilities are at the end of the corridor, and it is never cleaned.

Students also reported experiencing some confusion about what they were learning in the genre-based writing class, including precisely what to focus on to improve their writing skills, which showed their initial lack of independence as L2 writers.

I had no idea about how to write in this class. It was too challenging for me. (…) The language exam we take in school consists of multiple choice questions, which has its answer. However, writing doesn’t have just one right answer so that is why many students are confused and consider writing difficult. (Case 75, week 2)

However, even though they admitted having difficulties in writing, they were actively seeking for ways in which to improve their ability to write and their capacity for self-regulation.

It was helpful to learn about how to organize my writing based on the structure of the recount genre. It helps my thoughts be organized. (…) And I also felt like reading examples of this kind of writing because I that way I can learn various expressions through reading that will help me write better. (Case 13, week 3)

(Han, J. & Hiver, P. (2018). Genre-based L2 writing instruction and writing-specific psychological factors: The dynamics of change. Journal of Second Language Writing, 40, 44-59)

Shirley and the others were preparing for bed. “Don’t forget to wash up,” said Gretchen [one of the staff persons at the shelter]. Shirley exploded, “I’m 53 years old!” she shouted. “I have children older than you, and I don’t need you to tell me to wash up before going to bed.” Having gotten started, Shirley couldn’t stop. She denounced Gretchen and the shelter staff for purposely demeaning the women as part of their effort to control them, and continued along these lines until – perhaps to force them to prove her point – she was expelled for the night.

(Liebow, E. (1993). Tell them who I am: The lives of homeless women. London: Penguin. – cited in Yin (2011, p. 236)

Where did they get that meaning from? Four students claimed that they knew the word, so presumably they were drawing on memory. The problem in this case was that their memories were either inexact or downright wrong. An example of the former is Anthony’s written answer, “Plants different species and parents,” for which he did not get a point; however, when asked to explain further, he showed that he did know something of what he was talking about, for he said that hybrids were “the same plants, but they have different parent – their genus but different species.” Benjamin and Ferdinand seem to have had a similar problem, producing, respectively, “Hybrid is plant or animal of different kinds” and “Hybrids are the offspring of plants or animals”; each seems to have remembered only part of the definition and to have been content to use that as a basis for interpretation. The fourth student in this group was Jacob, who got into even worse trouble, for he seems to have equated hybrid with parasite. His written answer to the question was “They are many in number which have been cultivated but only few are been fertilized and the stupid and useless ones are hybrids. Hybrids are plants or young plants.” During his interview he asserted, “I know it [the word]. I found in agriculture textbook. They are plants that grow on the parents . . . that is . . . just the same thing as parasite,” and, in defiance of the assertion in the passage that many hybrids “have been developed …. by horticulturalists,” he told me, “You can’t make a hybrid…because you can’t plant it, Miss – the thing only develop itself.”

(Parry, K. (1996). Culture, literacy, and L2 reading. TESOL Quarterly, 30(4), 665-692)