【Event Report】2025 English Paper Writing Roundtable
Dates
Add to calendar0309
MON 2026- Place
- 早稲田大学戸山キャンパス33号館16階第10会議室
- Time
- 14:00～15:40
- Posted
- Sat, 14 Mar 2026
Since 2018, the Waseda University Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences (RILAS) has offered an English academic writing workshop as part of its support for early‑career researchers. In the 2025 academic year, following the previous year’s format, researchers with experience publishing academic monographs and journal articles in English were invited as panelists. They shared their experiences in a relaxed and informal setting.
The workshop was held in person and attended by twenty‑one graduate students from the Graduate School of Letters. The event was chaired and moderated by Professor Stephen Ryan of the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Professor Ryan first introduced the three invited panelists.
Following this, participants were divided into small groups for discussion based on questions submitted in advance, which led to a wide range of exchanges.
Key topics of discussion included, for example:
- starting points and strategies for writing academic papers (whether to begin with data, theory, or a research gap, and the overall writing process)
- approaches to long‑term, large‑scale writing projects, particularly doctoral dissertations (how to maintain an overall perspective and write efficiently when writing time is fragmented)
- structural and formal considerations specific to academic writing in English
- challenges encountered during the writing process and strategies for overcoming them
In addition, a variety of other issues were discussed, including how to engage with generative AI and translation tools.
For the author of this report, who attended the event as an observer, the emphasis on the need to be mindful of differing intended audiences when writing academic papers in English versus Japanese was particularly thought‑provoking.
Presenting research across languages is not simply a matter of translating content. Rather, the very approach to the work—specifically, which issues are foregrounded—inevitably shifts depending on the language and audience. Through the experience of writing across languages, researchers are required either to reposition their work within a broader scholarly context or, conversely, to articulate it as a more specific and narrowly focused discussion. Such process is likely to be an essential part of the research.
In this sense, writing academic papers in English can serve as a valuable opportunity for researchers to reexamine their own work from a new perspective.
This discussion functioned not only as a space in which participants could share common challenges and exchange ideas with one another, but also as an opportunity for them to ask questions directly of the invited speakers. As a result, lively exchanges took place across different academic positions.
Below are some selected comments from the post‑event survey:
- The small group discussions were interesting. We could tailor our conversation to our interests and contexts.
- I had a very valuable opportunity to ask questions directly to experienced professors.
- It was extremely valuable to hear candid accounts of real experiences with publishing academic papers, and I gained a great deal of useful information.
RILAS plans to continue offering events related to English academic writing for early‑career researchers. We hope that many will take advantage of these opportunities and participate actively.
Reported by: Sena Kaneko (Assistant Professor, RILAS, Waseda University)
Event Details
- Date and Time:
March 9, 2026 (Monday), 14:00–15:40 (100 minutes) - Venue:
Conference Room No. 10, 16th Floor, Building 33, Toyama Campus, Waseda University (In person) - Panelists:
Chika Takahashi (Professor, Faculty of Law and Letters, Ehime University)
Kei Irie (Professor, Faculty of International Social Sciences, Gakushuin University)
Tomoko Yashima (Professor Emerita, Kansai University) - Chair and Moderator:
Professor Stephen Ryan (Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences) - Language: English
- Participants: 21 graduate students