Research Completion Workshops

Professor Brenda Cooper runs RESEARCH COMPLETION WORKSHOPS under the brand BURNISH.

Workshops are directed at researchers, who are writing academic books, chapters or papers, or any form of creative non-fiction.

The aim is to work concretely on pre-circulated drafts, which are revised and polished to bring them closer to publication. In other words, these sessions are not general ‘how to write academically…’ but are concrete and focused on writing in progress.

Group workshops are based on collaboration and provide an intellectual pool of feedback on each person’s work. These are not mentoring sessions in which Brenda claims all the expertise. These workshops thrive on participants being at different stages in their writing careers, ranging from established researchers to emerging academic writers.

The process involved is four-fold:

• Refining, sharpening and clarifying the unique angle of the research

• Identifying the theoretical and methodological tools of the research

• Tightening the logic of the structure of the argument

• Polishing, burnishing, the prose.

Workshops are based on the understanding that academic writing can be beautiful and the reading of it can be pleasurable.

All  group sessions are interactive with participants introducing their own work and providing feedback on the work of others.

Brenda also works with individuals on a one- on- one basis, providing feedback on their writing and facilitating their completion of research projects.

Brenda runs group and individual sessions on a regular basis. If you are interested in working with her, you may contact her at: burnishwriting@gmail.com

Brenda has many years of experience as a well published researcher, teacher and postgraduate supervisor. Now she works   with her peers,  whose academic fields range widely across disciplines.

Brenda specialises in the translation of Ph.D. theses into books. She has worked with individuals, whose books have been successfully published, as well as with referrals from Wits University Press https://witspress.co.za/ 

Brenda runs regular writing retreats for the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) https://pari.org.za/  and she works with individuals and  runs writing retreats for The Southern Centre for Inequality Studies  https://www.wits.ac.za/scis/

Brenda’s full CV can be found here.