Outing RTP: Writing to be read

Research: Theory and Practice (RTP) is a new unit, offered as an alternative to the dissertation in the final year of the Fashion Media & Promotion honours degree at the University for the Creative Arts at Rochester. It is a 30-credit unit, introduced in the latter part of year 2, taught through workshops and tutorials in the autumn term of year 3 and submitted in January. The final submission consists of an article (as if for a specific publication) or an essay with a specified readership, plus a research book that documents all areas of primary and secondary research, the journey and reflections on the whole experience, in the context of final-year studies. This article is a reflective report on the first outing of this unit, giving details of its intention by focusing particularly on readership; development of appropriate, and therefore different, writing voices; and the processes of construction of an article, as well as referring to the strands of research that were undertaken. The emphasis is on the students’ journeys made through research and reflection and some of the unforeseen outcomes that were created.