While the Writers Workshop is best known for its one-to-one writing consultations, we also engage with the University community by providing other writing-support activities, one of which is the writing productivity group.
Our graduate writing productivity groups have become a very well-utilized Writers Workshop service among graduate students and faculty. The writing productivity groups meet twice a week for three hours in a hybrid format so that students can attend in-person or by Zoom. Each group begins with attendees sharing their writing goals, followed by individual work time, and concludes with a reflection and celebration of what writers accomplished.
Regular attendees say they benefit from the structured time and sense of accountability. Chelsea, a doctoral student in psychology who began attending during the lockdowns of Covid-19, explained, “I think having a set time, where I’m going to set aside goals for what I’m going to do during that session, typically writing—which is hard to motivate myself to do—sharing that goal with everyone else, and then coming back at the end, checking in on the progress that we made, just helps me a lot with accountability. It’s like, I know no one is going to be mad or upset or disappointed in me if I don’t actually meet the goal that I said I was, but somehow just saying it and having that group available makes me feel more accountable to doing the work.” Sara, who earned her PhD in Spanish and Portuguese, said, “It’s nice that I can add it to my calendar and just have that time blocked off no matter what, and even if I’m busy, even if I have other things going on, I know that that time is for me and for my writing.” Ashish, a PhD candidate in computer science, referred to writing group as “sacred time that I do not touch for other activities. I do not even schedule meetings with my advisor, because I tell him that, ‘Hey, I am actually writing during this time.’”
Madeline similarly reflected on using the writing groups to build a routine, particularly as a new online master’s program student. She explained, “Now every day, I spend about three hours in the morning mostly doing some kind of writing, or reading to support the writing. And that’s been my writing routine, and that was established because of the workshop, just trying to figure out in my first and second semester, what time of day works? When do I work best? How do I structure my day to allow me to work best? So it was helpful for that.”
In addition to building writing routines, regular attendees benefit from hearing about the writing processes of other graduate students. Nathalie, a doctoral student in anthropology, began attending writing groups during her first year in graduate school. She found “hearing about people’s different experiences throughout the different years and phases of the graduate school journey … has been mental preparation for me, with envisioning myself in those phases in the future.” Nathalie mentioned “learning a sense of grace with myself as a student and setting more realistic goals” through the process of reflection and sharing accomplishments. Kara, who started attending writing groups as a master’s student in Spanish & Portuguese and continues to attend 8 years later as faculty, reflected that “sometimes a successful day can be writing 50 words, and sometimes a successful day can be writing 500 words, and sometimes a successful day is deleting 500 words. And it’s nice to know that my process is similar to others’ processes, and that we as writers, as academics, that it’s okay to have these surges and ebbs and flows in writing.”
Finally, writing groups offer a space for graduate students to build a community of support. Kara acknowledged, “writing can be very lonely, and just having the support from people across campus has been really, really good for my morale.” Ashish has found, whether joining by Zoom or in-person, writing with a “community of graduate students” helps you “kind of ride the wave, you know, if they’re working on a deadline, you can push for it together. And you get to know grad students in the same stage, and that helps because in the back end of the PhD program… having the connection with people who write and are going through the same writing process as you do. … You can make friends.”
Cade, a doctoral student in history, summed up his experience of the writing groups: “One of the great things about it is that … [it’s] a welcoming and encouraging environment. So you go in knowing that you’re going to get positive feedback, no matter where you are.”
By Neal Liu, English, PhD candidate, and Carolyn Wisniewski, Senior Director, Writers Workshop