Fall 2025 marks a decade of CSU Writes supporting research writers across campus. We are deeply grateful to the thousands of writers who have participated in CSU Writes events, supported one another, and helped build a professional research writing community of excellence at CSU.
FALL 2025
Series 1: Power of Habit
SEPT 8 – DEC 8 | DATA Cohort: Dissertation And Thesis Accountability | Mondays, 12:30-2:30pm (12 sessions)
SEPT 8 – DEC 8 | Write to Publish (W2P) non-credit course | Mondays, 3-3:50pm (12 sessions)
SEPT 9 | How to Get Started and Stay Inspired (when writing a thesis or dissertation)
SEPT 24 | Make Writing a Habit
OCT 1 | What Strong Writers Do
Series 2: Smarter, Faster, Better
AUG 28 | Sprint and Review Techniques: Draft Quickly / Edit Slowly
SEPT 2 | Design Your AI Professional Development Plan (IN-PERSON)
SEPT 4 | Design Your AI Professional Development Plan (WEBINAR)
SEPT 10 | Reading for the Literature Review
SEPT 17 | AI Resources for the Literature Review
SEPT 29 | Reverse Outlining: Your Writing Superpower
Series 3: Super Communicators
SEPT 15 | Writing for Publication: The Big Picture
OCT 8 | Quotable: How to Review and Edit Your Work for Impact
OCT 14 | Pitching Research with Meaning: 3MT, Job Market, and Beyond
Webinars and Workshops
Design Your AI Professional Development Plan (IN-PERSON)
SEPT 2 | 12-1:30pm | LSC 322
IN-PERSON Workshop
In this in-person workshop, graduate students and postdocs explore how AI programs support (or, in some instances, do not support) their professional development goals. It provides a general introduction to the common LLM text generation, editing, and review tools. We will discuss when it makes sense to use text tools and how to approach AI use for our writing with clarity and intention. Researchers will leave this session with an AI professional development planning document to support their writing, research, and scholarship in the coming year.
Design Your AI Professional Development Plan (WEBINAR)
SEPT 4 | 12-1:30pm | Zoom
In this in-person workshop, graduate students and postdocs explore how AI programs support (or, in some instances, do not support) their professional development goals. It provides a general introduction to the common LLM text generation, editing, and review tools. We will discuss when it makes sense to use text tools and how to approach AI use for our writing with clarity and intention. Researchers will leave this session with an AI professional development planning document to support their writing, research, and scholarship in the coming year.
W2P: Write to Publish Course
Mondays 3-3:50pm (SEPT 8 - DEC 8)
The Write to Publish (W2P) non-credit course includes webinars and writing labs to guide writers through the steps of producing an article for publication in 12 weeks.
The course is open to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and CSU researchers.
#1 Writing for Publication – View recording here
#3 Reverse Outlining – View recording here
#5 Open Access, Copyright – View recording here
#7 They Say / I Say – View recording here
#9 Openings & Conclusions
#11 Cover Letters & Responding to Readers
DATA Cohort: Dissertation And Thesis Accountability
Mondays 12:30-2:30pm (SEPT 8 - DEC 8)
Available to all Master’s and Doctoral students at CSU, DATA is an interdisciplinary cohort designed to help build community and maintain progress on thesis and dissertation writing by facilitating space, time, and accountability support.
Each Monday, writers kick off the week by engaging with a supportive writing community to set writing goals, log progress, and share accomplishments to move their projects forward.
- 12:30 – 12:45pm – weekly goal setting, accomplishments reporting, and timely project discussions
- 12:45 – 2:30pm – optional writing session
How to Get Started and Stay Inspired (when writing a thesis or dissertation)
SEPT 9 | 12-1:30pm | Zoom
In this webinar, we explore effective mindsets and approaches for writing extensive, highly specialized academic manuscripts. Using metaphors of the mobius, professional climbing, and the Red Queen Hypothesis to explain the varied nature of thesis and dissertation writing, we will identify how complex long-form writing projects can be made accessible and pleasurable.
Reading for the Literature Review
SEPT 10 | 12-1:30pm | Zoom
Conducting a literature review requires reading widely and strategically. This webinar introduces graduate students and postdocs to techniques for navigating scholarly sources with purpose, identifying key arguments, and tracking conversations in the field. Learn how you can avoid plagiarizing other scholars and AI by reading attentively with your review and professional development in mind.
Note: CSU Writes also offers sessions on the topics of
- AI programs for identifying and gathering literature and
- Software and techniques for citation management
Sprint and Review Techniques: Draft Quickly/Edit Slowly
SEPT 11 | 12-1:30pm | Zoom
Introductory workshop for the 4-hour Article Draft and the “sprint and write.” fall series.
This webinar provides techniques to help writers draft quickly (and edit slowly) so that they can increase writing productivity and to build momentum on projects—with or without AI. We will also explore how to prepare for successful intensive writing sprints. This session is open to all writers on campus.
- sprint & write. Tuesday morning writing sessions starts SEPT 9, 10-11:30am (Zoom)
- 4-Hour Article Draft includes two 2-hour sprints to be held September 25 and October 2 at 11am-1:30pm. To make the most of your drafting sessions, you will wish to prepare data, literature, and clarity of findings/analysis/interpretations—hence the month of preparation.
Writing for Publication: The Big Picture
SEPT 15 | 3-3:50PM | Zoom
This webinar focuses on the processes of writing articles for academic journals. We will talk about identifying and contacting relevant journals, crafting the abstract, and tracking your progress through the process. This webinar is cross-listed with the W2P 12-week, non-credit certificate course.
AI Resources for the Literature Review
SEPT 17 | 12-1:30pm | Zoom
Few scholars can read every publication relevant to their topic of research and area of study these days. When used skillfully, Gen-AI programs can provide much needed support to help us identify, assess, and summarize the publications relevant to our research. In this session we will explore how GAI programs can help us develop bibliographies, make connections across texts, summarize and synthesize relevant literature. We will include time in this webinar for us to discuss our review writing challenges and to build AI literacy collectively.
Make Writing a Habit
SEPT 24 | 12-1:30pm | Zoom
Academic writing may not ever be easy, but researchers can create a sense of ease to facilitate their writing. In this webinar, we explore evidence-backed writing habits and strategies of productive (and even happy) academics. Participants will identify the base habits that will help them best develop their writing skills and practices this semester.
Reverse Outlining: Your Writing Superpower
SEPT 29 | 3-3:50pm | Zoom
If you want to craft engaging stories that move the reader from one idea to the next smoothly, you will benefit by learning techniques for reverse outlining. This session covers how to reverse outline refined model articles as well as drafts of in-process writing. The techniques are helpful for identifying problematic gaps, illogical leaps, and unnecessary repetitions. Reverse outlining techniques can also improve reading comprehension and help writers refine their writing style or “voice.” This webinar is cross-listed with the W2P 12-week, non-credit certificate course.
What Strong Writers Do
OCT 1 | 12-1:30pm | Zoom
The strength and resiliency we need to complete extensive writing projects is built over time and through repetition. This webinar covers evidence-based approaches and actions that graduate students and postdocs can undertake to prepare, undertake, and complete long-form and complex research and scholarly writing projects. This webinar is open to all writers on campus.
Pitching Research with Meaning: 3MT, Job Market, and Beyond
OCT 14 | 12-1:30PM | Zoom
Effectively communicating your research in clear, concise, and compelling ways is essential for career advancement. Job talks, research competitions, and networking are some of the contexts where having a quick pitch will be helpful. This webinar shares strategies for delivering compelling summaries of your work including 3MT-style presentations, elevator talks, and application-ready research summaries. Graduate students going on the job market or preparing for the CSU Graduate Student Showcase will find the information and practice in this webinar immediately useful.
Writing About Data Analysis
OCT 16 | 1-1:50PM | ZOOM
Presented by Ann Hess of the CSU Stats Lab, this workshop offers simple and effective guidelines for writing about data analysis, using examples from a variety of research areas and analysis methods.
In this webinar, you will learn helpful ways to:
- Make Methods and Results sections easier to write
- Make Methods and Results sections easier to read
- Reduce comments and questions from reviewer (or committee)
CITATION ARCANA: Cite-While-You-Write Wizardry Using Zotero
Featuring CSU Libraries Zotero experts Rachelle Ramer and Anna Ferri
This online session will help you harness Zotero to add formatted in-line citations and build a bibliography with just a couple clicks while you write in Word or Google Docs.
From installing Zotero to adding and organizing relevant references, this session will set you up with the skills and tools to make adding citations to your writing intuitive and simple.
Quotable: How to Review and Edit Your Work for Impact
OCT 30 | 12-1:30PM | Zoom
We all want to produce (and read) clear, concise, interesting, and meaningful academic writing. These qualities are hallmarks of writing excellence. They are also the qualities that emerge from careful review and editing. This webinar will help you review and edit your work efficiently at MACRO and micro textual levels. We will explore what makes your writing “uniquely yours” and not AI’s (even if you use AI programs to support your editing). This webinar will provide information designed to help you get your work both published and cited.
Prior Workshops & Series
SPRING 2025
- The Power of Habit Series
- Project Planning
- Writing with Ease
- Smarter, Faster, Better Series
- Write at Speed
- Reading, Notetaking, & Synthesizing for Lit Reviews
- Responsible AI for Research
- Super Communicators Series
- Tell a Captivating Research Story
- Mastering the Art of Citing with Ease (Zotero)
- Your Writing Style
- Punctuation workshop
FALL 2024
SPRING 2024
FALL 2023
SPRING 2023
FALL 2022
SPRING 2022
- Fresh Start: Scheduling Tools
- Literature Review
- Writing for Publication
- Abstracts
- Write for Speed I and II
- Reverse Outlining
- Getting and Using Feedback
- Summary/Paraphrase
- Punctuation
- Overcome Writing Stalls
- Engaging Audiences
- Passive/Active Voice
FALL 2021
- Schedule to Prioritize Writing
- Deal with Inner Writing Critics
- Summarize & Paraphrase & Avoid Plagiarizing
- Literature Review
- Abstracts
- Productivity & Well-Being
- How to Prepare to Write
- Edit for Clarity: Top 3 Sentence Issues
- EDT Info Session (with Graduate School and Library experts)
- Write for Speed
SPRING 2021
- Schedule to Prioritize Writing
- Writing for Publication
- Summarize & Paraphrase & Avoid Plagiarizing
- Literature Review
- Write Concisely with the Writer’s Diet
- Citation Management Software
- How to Prepare to Write
- Edit for Clarity: Top 3 Sentence Issues
- EDT Info Session (with Graduate School and Library experts)
- Write for Speed
- Writing Your Teaching Philosophy
FALL 2020
- Schedule to Prioritize Writing
- Summarize & Paraphrase & Avoid Plagiarizing
- Literature Review
- Productivity & Well-Being
- How to Punctuate (with Stephanie G’Schwind)
- Edit for Clarity
- Edit for Flow
- EDT Info Session (with Graduate School and Library experts)
- Write for Speed
SPRING 2020
- The Magic Writing Workshop
- Habits that Build & Sustain Writing Momentum
- Writing for Publication
- Productivity & Well-Being
- ETD (Electronic Thesis & Dissertation) Information Session
- Create Your “Shelter in Place” Research Writing Action Plan
HOW TO SERIES:
- Edit for Flow (organization & development)
- Edit for Wordiness (sentence-level editing for clarity & concision)
- The Literature Review: How to Prepare & Organize
- How to Punctuate
- Passive Voice: When & When Not to Use
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Construction Management/School of Education Workshop Series:
The NUTS & BOLTS OF WRITING IN GRADUATE SCHOOL
2/19: Writing as Construction
2/26: Frame & Connect
4/1: Engineering Sentences
4/8: Clarity & ReVision
