Large social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are making the news a lot these days as both lawmakers and citizens consider the benefits and consequences of widespread, networked, instant communication.

Without needing lawmakers to weigh in, we, as academic and research writers, can see and often agree on the effects of social media engagement on our writing practices and processes: fragmented attention, decreased concentration, and increased distraction. None of which supports the development of professional-level research writing skills or the building out of large research or scholarly writing projects.

Even as many of our brilliant academics study “social media,” our scholarly writing practices, processes, and productivity are supported by our clarity of focus, increased concentration, and repeated, dedicated periods of engagement with our projects.

To align our content with our practice and to support the deep work of our writers, the CSU Writes team made the decision in 2016 not to advertise our events or to create program “buzz” via social media. Instead, we use campus email and word-of-mouth to share about our high-quality and “deep” workshops, retreats, and drop-in writing sessions.

Founded in 2015, CSU Writes soon started offering workshops on “Deep Work,” drawing on the research and strategies of MIT-trained Cal Newport, now a tenured professor of Computer Science at Georgetown. A technology enthusiast in his own right, Newport’s rules for knowledge workers speak directly to us as research and academic writers: 1) work deeply, 2) embrace boredom, 3) quit social media, 4) drain the shallows. His books Deep Work (2016), Digital Minimalism (2019), and A World without Email (2021) have informed numerous CSU Writes workshops and offerings, for our goals align with Newport’s ethos. We support high-quality, engaged research writing (and thinking).

We support you as a writer. We support CSU as an academic, research and scholarly writing community of professionals, experts, and becoming-experts. And we ask you to help spread the word about the fabulous program we all create together when we gather (virtually or in-person) to talk, share, and do our deep work of writing.

CSU Writes Fall Offerings

Whether it’s the changing leaves, a pumpkin spice latte, or cheers erupting from Canvas Stadium, you’ve probably come to realize it’s fall. It’s also a good time to remind you we are not the writing center. CSU Writes works with career-building research and scholarly writers in the areas we struggle the most with our writing practices and productivity: space, time, energy, momentum, and style.

As we embark further in our semester, perhaps you’re noticing some major writing projects on the horizon. Maybe you’ve already been working towards a writing goal. No matter your situation, we’ve got an event for you.

Below are some of the remaining events for this semester.


Grad Retreats:

 

November 1.5-Day Writing Retreat (Zoom)
When: November 5th (3-4:30p) and 6th (8:30a-4:30p)

Writers who plan to graduate Spring 2022 will benefit from this retreat. This 1.5-Day Intensive Writing Retreat is designed to help graduate students maintain momentum on their fall writing projects. These retreats include short introductory sessions for project planning Friday afternoon and a full day of writing on Saturday.

December 1.5-Day Writing Retreat (Zoom)
When: December 3rd (3-4:30p) and 4th (8:30a-4:30p)

Wrap your semester writing before the winter break at this retreat. These retreats include short introductory sessions for project planning Friday afternoon and a full day of writing on Saturday.

 

Grad Workshops:

 

Presenting & Integrating Evidence

When: November 1st, 3-3:50p

What: This workshop covers strategies for how to best present and how to integrate evidence in the “story” of a research project. We will focus on narrative integration of evidence (this is NOT a workshop on how to create visual–tables, figures, or illustrations).  [This is a crossover workshop with the Write to Publish Suite–a 12-week series to produce an article for publication.]

Passive & Active Voice with Dr. Kelly Bradbury

When: November 3rd, 12-12:30p

What: This workshop covers strategies for how to best present and how to integrate evidence in the “story” of a research project. We will focus on narrative integration of evidence (this is NOT a workshop on how to create visual–tables, figures, or illustrations).  [This is a crossover workshop with the Write to Publish Suite–a 12-week series to produce an article for publication.]

Postdoctoral students:

You are welcome to attend any graduate student or faculty writing event that fits your needs. We also offer a few events specifically for postdoc students.

Faculty Writes:

Faculty from across academic disciplines and departments are encouraged to join a CSU Writes event. We offer workshops, retreats, and a Writing Accountability for Research Projects (WARP) program.

 

Faculty Retreats:

 

October Writing Retreat (Hybrid or Zoom)

When: October 29th (8:30a-4:30p) and/or 30th (8:30a-4:30p)

What: Welcome to mid-semester! This 1- or 2-Day Intensive Writing Retreat (you pick which days to attend) is designed to help faculty maintain momentum on their fall writing. A one or two-day retreat is a great place to pick up a stalled project or to start building momentum early in the semester. These retreats include short introductory sessions for conversation and project planning in the morning on Friday and Saturday.

November Writing Retreat (Hybrid or Zoom)

When: November 12th (8:30a-4:30p) and 13th (8:30a-4:30p)

What: Begin to wrap your fall writing projects at this retreat. This is the final of the semester’s 2-Day Intensive Writing Retreats. It is designed to help faculty maintain momentum as we move into the final weeks of the semester.  It has short introductory sessions on Friday and Saturday mornings.

Faculty Workshops:

 

Collaborative Writing: Simple Rules

When October 26th, 12-12:50p

What: This workshop provides writers with ten rules that will support their writing with collaborators. We will discuss data management, agreements, timelines, and more in the context of writers coming together to co-produce manuscripts and proposals.

WORKSHOP RECORDINGS:

If you cannot make one our workshops or special events, go to the CSU Writes website. You will find recorded workshops on topics ranging from “scheduling to prioritize writing” to “managing email” to “crafting a literature review.”

You will even find recordings of our semester’s special events like the Source/Citation Management workshops on how to use Endnote, Mendeley, and Zotero. You can also access a recording of the small panel/BIG TOPIC panel presentation featuring experts from CSU’s Research Acceleration Office who spoke on the landscapes, resources, and writing strategies for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Stay up-to-date with our latest offerings and success stories at our website, https://csuwrites.colostate.edu/. Write on!

Fresh starts are those times when we experience the opportunity for a “new beginning.” Common times that signal an opportunity to begin again are: New Years, Birthdays, first of the Month, first of the Week—Sundays or Mondays, and even Mornings.

For those of us in academe, new academic or fiscal years, semesters, or units can provide us with a feeling of renewed energy and an opportunity to begin a project or re-engage with an existing project anew.

That experience of starting with renewed energy is called the “Fresh Start Effect,” and behavioral researchers like Katy Milkman of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania have found that “Fresh Starts” can be a great time to adjust habits and patterns that are not working will for us. Although she is careful to remind us in her book, How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be (2021), to hang on to those habits and patterns that do work.

“So, if you’re hoping to make a positive change in your life but are pessimistic about your chances, perhaps because you’ve failed before and worry another attempt is likely to turn out similarly, my advice is to look for fresh start opportunities” (35).

The start of a new semester, the start of a new writing group, the start of a writing retreat, each of these offer opportunities for you as a research or scholarly writer at CSU to grab on to a Fresh Start and to channel its positive effects into your writing project and practice.

Milkman tells us that “Fresh starts increase your motivation to change because they give you either a real clean slate or the impression of one; they relegate your failures more cleaning to the past; and they boost your optimism about the future. They can also disrupt bad habits and lead you to think bigger picture about your life” (36).

Consider ways that you might begin your writing anew with greater optimism and sense of the bigger picture for writing in your academic career.

As I type this, I glance outside my window to appreciate the recent snowfall. Not too long ago I wished to have a window in my shared graduate student office space. Somehow, with the 2020 pandemic I got my wish; never did I think it would be from having to work from home. It is as if a genie granted my wish with the typical misconstrued spin. It is an understatement to say this year has had a significant impact on scientists. In the midst of the quickly evolving environment around us, we must continue in our efforts to spread our knowledge, as a doctoral candidate in Chemistry and a graduate student intern for CSU Writes, I have found regular writing accountability check-ins with CSU colleagues to be more crucial than ever now that I have a window but must talk with my writing friends through a computer screen.

Science communication is the cornerstone of our job. It is a component of every scientists’ job, and the difficulty of aptly spreading our knowledge is often overlooked. I am grateful to study and research at Colorado State University, where we appreciate this difficulty, and strive to provide our researchers and academic writers with support and tools to succeed in each facet of scientific research and scholarly work, especially writing.

As scientists, we accept that our job is to investigate unknowns about the reality in which we operate, and ultimately expand knowledge. The scientific method guides us in the journey until we can be sure that our hypothesis is supported. The journey, however, does not end there. What good is science if we do not advance the knowledge upon which we expanded?

Part II in this series will be published November 2021.

CNS has had three faculty who formed one feedback writing group and who were subsequently awarded prestigious NSF early career grants. At CSU Writes, we’ve dubbed them the “Career Musketeers.”

Writing a successful a grant proposal for the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program (also known as the NSF-CAREER) is the aspiration for many CSU assistant professors. The CAREER is prestigious and aims to establish decades of the faculty member’s research (not to fund a single project as is the case with many grants). Thus, the NSF awards CAREERs to “faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”

The proposals are complex, unique, and challenging to write. Having dedicated writing partners and conversations early on helps. Dr. Hua Chen (Physics), Dr. Justin Sambur (Chemistry, and Dr. Joseph Zadrozny (Chemistry) found that building a solid writing group and establishing a regular writing schedule to be crucial steps in becoming competitive applicants.

In 2019, Chen, Sambur and Zadronzy participating in the NSF-CAREER program co-facilitated between the CSU Writes and the Research Acceleration Office (RAO) of the Vice President for Research. The RAO and CSU Writes have helped support numerous successful CAREER proposals, and the feedback group formed by Chen, Sambur, and Zadronzy was productive and highly successful.

The group met weekly for months to provide regular feedback on each other’s proposal throughout the generating process.

A crucial part of Zadronzy’s process was the accountability for just sitting down and generating lots of ideas and content. He knew had a lot he needed to get down on the page before he could sculpt a competitive proposal.

“To me, the problem is the part that I get excited about….looking at the problem from all these different perspectives is what gets me going. But then you try to write something like that, and it’s going to come out like a horrible movie…one with no story.”

The weekly accountability provided through the program was credited by Chen and Sambur, too, as the most useful benefit from group writing.

Chen expressed appreciation for “having a one-hour or two-hour block literally sitting on [the calendar],” saying it “helped me to concentrate on this more than other [obligations].” CSU’s Career Musketeers exemplify some easy and beneficial ways to take advantage of CSU Writes programming.

They also highlight the power of the “together” in our motto: write. early. often. better. together.

Look for more CSU Writes and RAO partnered grant writing support in Spring 2022.

Un pour tous, tous pour un (translated as: All for one, and one for all

Each semester about a dozen CSU graduate students, postdocs, and faculty dedicate a few hours of their week to proctor “show up” and write in an MSTeams virtual meeting space so that writers, like you, can “show up” and not write alone.

This simple CSU Writes offering has an ancient history and offers some low-stakes but powerful support. The term “show up & write.” comes from a modification of Judy Bridges’ imperative to the writers she taught to “shut up and write” so they would stop talking about the novel they wanted to write and sit down and get to it. Yet, the notion of setting a time to gather and write together can be traced through early-twentieth-century writing center models back to writing groups of ancient Greece. Rowena Murray’s studies of “writing in social spaces” and Robert Boice’s data on the value of “accountability” for research writing productivity confirm that when we “show up” for each other and write together, we each tend to make more progress on our work than we would on our own.

You can show up & write. via a link on CSU Writes website. When you do, you will connect with a proctor in a Teams meeting room who will be there for a couple hours to write with you. One of our faculty proctors, Dr. Lindsey Schneider, has hosted a twice-weekly session for Faculty and Researchers of Color (FROC).

This semester’s proctors hail from a range of departments, and all are making fast work on their writing projects!

Those proctors are:

  • Emily Amedee (Communications & Media Studies)
  • Susan Clotfelter (Journalism and Media Communication)
  • Annie Halseth (English)
  • Teri Gadd (Horticulture and Landscape Architecture & Horticulture)
  • Marta Rowh (Public Health)
  • Lindsey Schneider (Ethnic Studies)
  • Lauren Vilen (Health & Human Sciences: School of Education)
  • Abby Ward (Chemistry)
  • Halie White (Philosophy)

We are grateful for their dedication to writing in social spaces. When you show up & write. be sure to thank your session proctor for their service and for being there for you. The low-stakes accountability can do wonders for keeping you “on writing task.”

Writers who show up for 20 sessions earn their choice of a CSU Writes mug, pint glass, or thermal wine cup.

If you are interested in proctoring a session during the spring 2022 semester, reach out to CSU Writes via a form on the webpage or by emailing csuwrites@colostate.edu.

CSU Writes is a modest program with a BIG reach across campus. We bring researchers and scholars together from dozens of disciplines to support their writing productivity and craft. We support hundreds of writers with thousands of event attendances each year. We conduct original research in the field of writing studies. And, we have a lot of engaged, thought-provoking fun!

None of this would be possible without the conscientious and dedicated work of CSU Writes’ interns. They are the engines of the program behind-the-scenes. The internships are paid and are designed for graduate students; although, we have also had postdoctoral fellows join the CSU Writes team.

Like each intern, each internship is unique. The intern program is competitive, with a number of applicants for each position. The program is designed to be mutually beneficial and encourages interns to draw from their own areas of interest or expertise to contribute to the CSU Writes program. This year’s group are wonderfully talented and reflect a diversity of backgrounds, programs, and projects:

  • Kimi Conro (Journalism and Media Communications) runs our DATA Groups
  • Khadija Holder (Business Administration) provides web communications support
  • Nellie Kassebaum (Public Health) runs the Newsletter and provides web support
  • Heidi Klem (Chemistry) returns this year to run the WARP (Writing Accountability for Research Projects) bi-weekly email check ins
  • Rudy Leal McCormack (Political Science) is reviewing program options for adding Job Application support to CSU Writes’ offerings
  • Lauren Mangus (English) processes registrations, attendances, and helps with the database
  • Tawni Riepe (Fish, Wildlife & Conservation Biology) is running a 100+ institution survey project
  • Laura van der Pol (Soil & Crop Sciences) runs show up & write. and provides NREL/USGS support
  • Sarah Van Etten (Education, Equity & Transformation) supports collaborative writing research project and co-facilitates ED Writes in the School of Education

You can read about our fabulous interns on the CSU Writes “People” page: https://csuwrites.colostate.edu/people/

If you are a graduate student who is interested in applying for a paid internship, you can look for announcements in late summer via the Graduate School and on Handshake. You can also reach out to CSU Writes for information at csuwrites@colostate.edu and see the CSU Writes https://csuwrites.colostate.edu.

This fall semester, Director of CSU Writes, Dr. Kristina Quynn, gave a talk at the University of New Mexico through their National Science Foundation Advance Program’s Research Success Series. Quynn spoke about how research writers might create realistic and sustainable writing practices amidst the rapidly shifting work terrains of academe during a global pandemic. The talk included a quick self-assessment about the number and nature of current writing projects in the researchers’ pipelines, and about how writers were (or were not) engaged with their projects. The talk also focused on language and strategies to keep writing real, including:

sustainable: a successful writing place and pace that promotes wellbeing

engagement: a meaningful connection with a project

These foci represent an alternative discourse and focus to writing support focused on “productivity,” which tend to add pressure and stress to research writers rather than supportive options for writing during a global pandemic.

Quynn’s own research and talks through CSU Writes often focus on the various ways researchers develop sustainable writing practices and habits.

As we head into the final weeks of the fall semester, we also start looking ahead to plan spring semester writing projects and events.

CALL FOR PROCTORS

Proctor for show up & write.

Each semester volunteer proctors show up and write in designated 2-hour shifts from 8am-5pm (sometimes later, depending on the proctor) so that we can also show up and write with company.

Proctors create and hold a space for writing together, which studies on “writing in social spaces” have shown to lower feelings of writing anxiety and task avoidance among writers. If you are interested in volunteer proctoring in the Spring 2022 semester, send us your interest and availability by completing this < 3 min Google form.

CSU Writes SPRING 2022 Events

This spring, CSU Writes will continue weekly workshops and monthly retreats to support the writing practices and productivity of graduate student, postdoctoral fellow, research, and faculty writers at CSU.

Look for a couple new offerings: Starting in February, we will pilot weekly writing accountability support for grant writers. In April, we will pilot a writing software “Skills Swap”—if you have developed skills with writing apps or with other software, we’d love to feature your skills!

Please note: It takes a few weeks for us to update the CSU Writes website, and we appreciate your patience as we get spring semester events posted (by mid-January).

Until we meet again in January, may your writing be brief, frequent, low stress, and highly rewarding.

Earlier this November, the 2021 GradShow wrapped up another successful, virtual year of sharing and learning. Over 500 submissions were received across all eight colleges and from many interdisciplinary programs.

This year, for the first time, CSU Writes sponsored an award titled the CSU Writes Written Excellence Award for best title. Small but mighty, titles are not to be underestimated.

In an era of heightened academic productivity and publication, titles are increasingly important for garnering attention and for conveying insight about an academic text. This award recognizes the crafting of excellent writing through characteristics of clarity, concision, alignment, engagement, and impression. It is a single award of $500, which may be awarded to a CSU graduate student from any program, college, or grouping.

The winner of this year’s award was Paige Ostwald, who studies cell and molecular biology. The title of Ostwald’s work was “Heart Development: the peanut butter to our cardiac jelly.” Descriptive and engaging, Ostwald’s title directed us to a compelling and powerful metaphor for understanding complex cardiac processes.

CSU Writes Director and Assistant Dean of the Graduate School Kristina Quynn welcomed attendees to the virtual platform and provided background on the purpose and breadth of the event.

“Through the GradShow, graduate student presenters practice communicating effectively with their peers and broader audiences by presenting in a campus-wide, professional venue,” Quynn shared in her welcome. “Through the GradShow, our presenters connect, engage, and demonstrate the relevance of their work to people inside and outside their disciplines, to graduate student colleagues, to faculty and to the broader CSU community, including our alumni and industry attendees.”

The purpose of the GradShow is to provide an outlet for graduate students to present their research so that those presentation skills can be practiced and honed. Presenters introduced their topics in a thirty second video clip, and a recorded a three-minute video to more thoroughly explain their research. These videos were available via an online platform where all attendees could navigate through submissions.

All award-winners were announced at the closing ceremony on November 10th, where keynote speaker Randy Olson spoke about the “And, But, Therefore Framework” for storytelling. Dr. Olson is a marine biologist by training, but in 1994, he left a tenured professorship at the University of New Hampshire to attend film school at the University of Southern California.

Each year, the GradShow provides an opportunity for growth and development of research storytelling, especially so that academics can share complex and specific topics to any audience member they may encounter.