Author: quynn

In the blog series on “How We Write,” we feature researchers and scholars who have found success through writing impactful manuscripts or funded proposals. How do they do it? Let’s find out!

During a time that many researchers at Colorado State University are experiencing great uncertainty in grant funding, it is all the more exciting to celebrate good news. This newsletter we share the bright light of success at CSU with a feature on Dr. Megan Willis, her recent grant success, and the writing practice that have supported her (and her students’) work.

Dr. Megan Willis is an environmental analytical chemist and Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department, where she and her students seek to understand aerosol formation and chemistry and the resulting impacts on climate and air quality. Specifically, they use field observations, laboratory studies and kinetic models to provide process-level information to atmospheric models.

 This spring Megan received a prestigious NSF Career award from NSF’s Division of Chemistry–Environmental Chemical Sciences to support both novel research and ongoing education outreach initiatives. Here’s what Megan had to say about her success and process (note, we did not ask Megan to pitch CSU Writes, but we appreciated the shout out):

CSU Writes: “Please share a bit out the grant you were recently awarded.”

Megan: “The NSF Career Award […] supports my group’s focus on the atmospheric aqueous phase chemistry of biogenic sulfur emitted from Earth’s oceans. We aim to understand how biogenic sulfur is processed in the atmosphere, which has implications for global cloud reflectivity over oceans. This award also supports our ongoing collaboration with the CSU Natural Sciences Education and Outreach Center, to develop hands-on education materials around the multiphase chemistry of acid rain.”

 

CSU Writes: “Can you tell us about your process for writing this proposal – any  specifics of your writing practice and process as well as any major successes or even catastrophes – and anything you learned from these?”

Megan: “My writing process for this proposal was lengthy. I began focused work on this project in the previous summer and discovered relatively quickly that I had set out to write the equivalent of perhaps five proposals, rather than one. This led to a long process of narrowing the scope for this proposal and developing an education component that was reasonably in line with the research side of the project.

When the summer of 2024 began, I felt lost in process and was quite close to giving up. Fortunately, that was when CSU Writes began an “Early Career Pilot” program together with the Research Acceleration Office. This support and community allowed me to complete the proposal, and I believe was central to my success.”

 

CSU Writes: “What writing advice would you share with others?”

Megan: “Three things come to mind here:

(1) Begin early.

(2) Write for a few hours every day.

(3) Leverage a wide community of support for writing — especially CSU Writes!”

 

CSU Writes:   “Now that you’ve achieved these awards, is there anything you would like to share about how this success is inspiring or guiding you moving forward?”

Megan: “Being still quite early in my proposal writing career, I think achieving this award has helped me to begin to trust my instincts for scientific ideas.”

 

Thank you to Megan for graciously sharing her success, experiences, and advice with us. We appreciate being able to celebrate CSU writing excellence and success these days. To all, be well and write on!

Writing with clarity and precision for other researchers and scholars is challenging for all of us, but especially those who are new to a field, those who may be jumping into inter- or transdisciplinary projects, or those who may be learning to translate their knowledge into English.

Developing a specialized disciplinary vocabulary is essential to our capacity to “wield the field” (ability to communicate the breadth and depth of ideas in your discipline) and for our writing to have impact.

For both early-career and established researchers alike, wielding the field requires strategies (plans for action) and deliberate practice (focused and routine attention to skill improvement). Here some well-known, but easily overlooked, practices:

Make time for reading. Extensive reading across academic and non-academic texts will expose you to the varied contexts and usages for specialized (and even non-specialized) terms. If you are having a hard time writing or communicating your own ideas, check and see if it is related to your need to know or understand more. Spending time reading (daily if you can) will steep you in your field and help you think and make connections more clearly.

Keep a reading journal to track findings, important ideas, and the new words (with definitions). This simple practice of tracking will help you turn the unfamiliar into the familiar, make sense of previously opaque concepts, and appreciate the depth and breadth of thinking in your field.

Read a lot before integrating GenAI programs into your writing process, and when you do, take care to understand and approve all AI-suggested language. Most simply, responsible AI use requires that you be the knowledgeable “human in the loop.” As a researcher or scholar, most of your knowledge will come from your reading.

Define key and specialized terms. When you write, help your readers by defining how you are using key or linchpin terms (essential to your approach or argument) and any technical terms that may have multiple meanings, depending on the context. Specialized language, sometimes referred to as “jargon,” has developed a “bad rap” (a bad reputation) over the years for its overuse and its propensity to be conflated with how academics “should” write. Jargon-heavy scholarship reads as dense, dull, and tedious, turning away all but the most determined readers. Understandably, not the best way to make your work accessible, impactful, citable, or fundable.

And yet, specialized language (in other contexts “jargon”) is essential for expressing complex ideas. To write clearly while using specialized language, quickly contextualize or defining your terms. You will help your readers build their vocabulary and appreciate the value of your research. A simple practice to increase your impact!

Take extra care with polysemous words* since these can easily confuse readers new to a discipline. A polysemous word carries multiple, related meanings that can generally be understood from the context but may cause challenges if writing on interdisciplinary projects.

For example, theory can mean a guess (everyday usage), a substantiated explanation based on evidence (science), a branch of study (mathematics), a framework for interpretation (literary studies), a system of ideas to explain reasoning (philosophy), a conceptual model of behavior (sociology), a pedagogical framework (education), and more. Often a quick cue or reference will signal readers to how you are using a word that carries multiple meanings.

• Trivia for the curious: At over 430 entries, the English word set holds the record for the highest number of distinct definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Ultimately, improving your vocabulary for writing is a gradual process that demands consistent reading, recording, and application across your career. Integrating these practices your daily routines will enhance the clarity and precision of your writing, boost your confidence, and strengthen your ability to wield your field.

Wield away!

 

*Note: Polysemous words (multiple meanings depending on the context) are not homonyms (different words with different meanings but with same pronunciation, e.g., hoarse and horse or knew and new).

Mainstream Generative AI (simply known as “AI”) launched only a couple years ago, and across all disciplines, we continue to stalwartly learn about the best ways to use (or not) AI programs in our research and writing.

Since 2022, journals, funders, universities, and scholarly associations have gradually issued guidance on responsible AI use. While your decisions about how to engage AI remain individual, your best choices will come from staying informed about evolving policies and emerging research. To navigate the rapidly changing (and hyped) world of AI for writing, it helps to have a trusted inner compass to guide your way.

Strategic and ethical engagement with AI begins with understanding the expectations and norms of our scholarly ecosystems.

Consider: Does the journal you plan to submit to allow for AI use in generating a manuscript draft or only for review and editing? In the project conception and planning stages, are you confident the AI programs you selected for data collection or data analysis are secure and meet field or institutional standards? Does your AI-use tracking method ensure transparency and disclosure, and could you provide if a committee, editor, or funder requests proof? These are a few of the questions you (and your co-authors) may already be considering in your AI-use decision-making process.

Here are our top 8 “coordinates” to help orient your AI decisions, use, and ongoing professional development (these are also part of the CSU Writes AI Guidance page):

CSU (Universities)
Take care to follow CSU’s policies, use approved tools, and meet academic integrity standards to ensure your AI use aligns with campus expectations for ethical research and scholarship. TILT, the LIBRARIES, AI@CSU have AI guidance. Note that currently only CoPilot, MSTeams, and soon CSU-GPT are approved for use with confidential or CSU proprietary data.

Publishers
Review journal and press guidelines to understand what forms of AI assistance are permitted and how they will expect you to disclose AI use. Take care to consider how AI intersects with authorship and might affect the originality of your work (if already part of an open AI training system).

Regulatory and Funding Bodies
Comply with agency-specific rules on AI in proposal development, data security, research design, and reporting. Large funding agencies, such as the NIH, have issued restrictions to AI use in the generation of grant proposals. Take care to know the guidelines to preserve your project’s eligibility, credibility, and compliance.

Scholarly Associations
Look to disciplinary organizations for emerging ethical norms and best practices. The conversations at your conferences and meetings will shape field-specific expectations for originality, transparency, and responsible innovation.

Your Professional Goals
Keep who you are working to become and what you wish to contribute front of mind. Choose AI practices that support your scholarly identity and that will advance your career with integrity.

Career-Long Cognitive Development
Also, keep your mind front of mind when choosing to use AI. By reading, writing, and thinking, you continue to develop your expertise and hone your disciplinary fluency. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. In these early days of GenAI, take care not to cognitively offload the very load you should be carrying.

Sustainable Use
Maintain CSU’s award-winning sustainability standards. Consider the ecological and computational consequences of AI tools and choose practices that align with CSU’s sustainability commitments and responsible resource stewardship. This may be as simple as turning to a chatbot for advice less often by reaching out to a colleague for coffee and an in-person chat.

Collaborations and Communities
Build strong and trusted research and scholarly relationships. If you co-author with others, establish shared expectations for transparency, use, and disclosure. Affirm equitable, ethical, and collectively supported AI practices in your collaboration.

Ultimately, responsible AI use is not a one-time choice, but an ongoing scholarly (i.e., writing) practice. To continue developing your internal AI-Use Compass, stay aware and informed, document your decisions, and opt-in to the resources and community at CSU Writes and other CSU units as part of your continually developing AI ecosystem. You can find more information at the CSU Writes AI Guidance page.

Many CSU researchers and scholars have been using AI machine learning programs long before “AI” and Large Language Models (LLM) entered mainstream vocabulary. Yet, for most of us, Generative AI systems (GenAI) like CoPilot and CSU-GPT are recent contributors to our research, writing, and teaching.

The past couple of years of AI development have meant a rapid and steep learning curve for all of us at CSU.

Amidst the influx of information, noise, hype, and bubbles, we have created an opportunity for us to pause, read, and ponder GenAI together.

This fall, CSU Writes invites the campus community to learn about GenAI and our rapidly changing work-a-day world with a Book Club discussion of Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI. Mollick is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Warton School, has studied AI for decades, and publishes a well-regarded Substack where he also ponders the most recent event and conversations going on in the world of AI that will affect our lives and work.

We will gather for two sessions so you can join in the way that works best for you:

• In-Person: November 5, 3-4:30 p.m. LSC 322
• Virtual: November 6, 12:00–1:30 p.m. (MST) on Zoom

You may be AI curious, AI cautious, AI excited, AI resistant, or all of the above, depending on the day. No matter where you stand, this discussion is for you. All at CSU are welcome to participate in CSU Writes’ book clubs. Register here: https://csuwrites.colostate.edu/book-club/

As a companion AI discussion, our spring 2026 semester book is Alex and Emily Bender’s The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want. A great read for winter break!

To attend a book club discussion, you do not need to have finished (or even started) the book to participate. We recognize how full the semester can be; simply bring your questions, insights, and willingness to explore how AI is changing our scholarly world.

To support rich and inclusive conversation, we created a Book Club Discussion Guide with key themes, optional prompts, and reflective questions to help you engage at your own pace.

You can access the Discussion Guide here: https://csuwrites.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/Co-Intelligence-Book-Club-Discussion-Guide-F25-Web.pdf

AI is reshaping how we work, research, and write at CSU. As a research university and a learning community, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to consider how we adopt and shape these systems. Join us as we explore what it means to work with AI ethically, creatively, and sustainably at CSU.

Let’s get together to explore Mollick’s vision of humans and AI learning side-by-side and consider the implications of co-intelligence for our research, studies, and work at CSU.

At CSU, writing is not just a task on our to-do lists. Writing is how we think, how we collaborate, and how we create the research that advances our disciplines. Writing is also how we occasionally spiral into existential doubt before bouncing back stronger (often with coffee in hand).

Writing during calm times can be a heroic feat. Writing during stormy times? This requires additional courage and fortitude. Research and scholarly writing demands that we simultaneously be both seasoned experts and brave beginners. It takes guts to confront the blinking cursor, resilience to face revision after revision, and a dose of humility to learn as we go (berry chantilly cake helps, too).

And sometimes? Sometimes the words just do not come. That is okay. They will be back (like boomerangs or well-meaning reviewers).

In these unpredictable times, we keep showing up (blatant plug for show up & write.). We write because it matters. Our research, our teaching, our ideas are part of a larger conversation that makes the world a little smarter, a little more just, and a little more human. And at CSU, we do not do this alone. We write in community—in labs, classrooms, writing groups, and write-on-site gatherings (like retreats and “Research Acceleration Fridays”–a shout out to our indomitable colleagues at the FORT USGS).

These days, we would do well not to underestimate the power of encouragement (or a well-timed bit of humor). Enter: CSU Writes’ Keep Calm and Write On postcards and stickers.

You can now post a  Keep Calm and Write On reminder in your writing space or on your computer as a gentle cue that writing flows more easefully when you are both emotionally calm and mentally alert. Give a Keep Calm and Write On sticker to a colleague as a pick-me-up after a particularly difficult revise/resubmit (the “r&r” that often necessitates additional R&R: Rest and Relaxation).

Send Keep Calm and Write On postcards to your mentors, your mentees, your co-authors, and your administrators with words of gratitude for their strength and their ability to show up on challenging days. Or post a Keep Calm and Write On card to your office door as encouragement when all other words fail.

We take our cue from across the Atlantic from another century. In the late 1930s, as Britain braced itself for wartime upheaval, the Ministry of Information printed a simple poster meant to steady the nation: Keep Calm and Carry On. It was not widely seen at the time, but decades later in the early 2000s, its message of resilience and perseverance gained popularity and inspired countless parodies. Keep Calm and Eat Cake and Now Panic and Freak Out are a couple of my favorites (or favourites for our British colleagues). As historical and cultural contexts changed, so too has the message.

Putting on my literary critic’s hat, I suspect the popular revival of this WWII slogan in the twenty-first century has much to do with its rhythmic and rhetorical properties. (Bear with me. You have already come so far, and it will be worth it!) First, Keep Calm and Carry on is an isocolon—a figure of speech where two or more parts of a sentence are grammatically equal in length, structure, and rhythm. (Basically, it is fun to say and hear.) And second, its coupled directives deliver a dose of pithy wisdom capable of transcending historical contexts to speak sagely about how we might continue with purpose and meaning during times of adversity.

As 2025 unfolds, writing remains central to our work as researchers, scholars, and educators. For no one at CSU writes alone. In solitude, yes, because we all need solitude to think, and a higher-than-average percentage of academics are introverts who need a lot of solitude (not a scientific fact, so do not quote me, but an observation…or this writer’s projection). Either way, the point is we write together in solitude and solidarity.

We created Keep Calm and Write On postcards/stickers for you, for all of us to reach out to one another and connect during times that require courage and fortitude. They are designed to be signs of solidarity and tangible encouragements (just the kind of mischief your writing desk might be missing).

Currently available at writing retreats or by request. Pick some up and share with abandon. If you or your department would like cards or stickers, complete this request form. We will pop them in the mail for you as soon as we can.

Let us keep showing up for each other: calmly, courageously, and, when we can, with pen (or laptop) in hand.

If you want to continue and/or gain momentum on your writing projects this summer, pencil in some dedicated work time by signing up for CSU Writes Summer writing retreats. We are hosting a series of retreats from mid-May through June for Faculty, Postdoc, Graduate Student, and Early-Career writers.

Registration is currently open, so secure your spot today for some productive writing throughout the summer!

GRAD Writes 5-Day Retreat: May 19-23^rd | 8:30am – 4pm | Preconstruction Bldg Click to Register

GRANT Writes 1-Day Retreat: April 25^th | 8:30am – 4pm | HYBRID (LSC 324 & Teams) Click to Register

Faculty Writes 4-Day Retreat: May 27-30^th | 8:30am – 4pm | Preconstruction Bldg. Click to Register

Early-Career Faculty 3-Day Retreat: June 2-4^th | 8:30am – 4pm | Preconstruction Bldg.  Click to Register

GRAD Writes 3-Day Retreat: June 16-18^th | 8:30am – 4pm | Preconstruction Bldg. Click to Register

Women Faculty 5-Day Retreat: June 23-27^th | 8:30am – 4pm | Preconstruction Bldg.  Click to Register

Grant writing excellence begins in a place few researchers expect—and many try to avoid—the realm of bad ideas and feelings of going nowhere. Dr. Andee Kaplan, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at CSU, shares her map through the messy middle of proposal writing. Through her recent accomplishments, we learn how writing colleagues, dogged persistence, and research purpose create a path to grant-writing success.

In 2024, Andee was awarded not one but two prestigious NSF grants—including the coveted NSF CAREER—to fund her work on developing computational tools to advance an issue in historical data recording called record linkage. She was gracious enough to share her experience and offer some advice with us in hopes of inspiring others to embark on extensive and intimidating grant projects of their own.

In order to write these two massive grant proposals, Andee fully embraced the concept of the CSU Writes mantra to just show up and write:

“I attended every CSU Writes meeting I could to develop a regular writing practice. Even the sessions where I was frustrated and felt that my writing was going nowhere were important to my process. In order to make the progress I needed to; it was important that I worked through the bad ideas first. This regular writing allowed me to know that there would be more time very soon that I could count on to move the proposals forward.”

In terms of grant writing in general, Andee describes her application to both grants simultaneously as “hedging my bets,” and simply feels lucky to have not needed to fall back on one if the other failed. Her advice to other grant writers is to just do it: “Start early! Also, find your circle of people to provide feedback.”

According to Andee, the greatest reward of this endeavor was less about winning the awards, but more so for having reached her goal of finishing the proposals and having a product she is proud to have others read. Ultimately, Andee says that writing these proposals has provided a roadmap and clarity toward her future path: “I’m mostly inspired to keep moving forward by the work itself. I would be working on these problems even if the grants were unfunded, but it’s wonderful to be able to pay my students to collaborate on this research.”

Monograph writing is not for the faint of heart—or in the case of Dr. Catherine DiCesare, the process of writing a single-author scholarly book wasn’t for the faint of art. For this CSU Professor of Art History, monograph writing reflects both a deep commitment to her field as well as a thoughtful approach to sustainable writing habits and scholarly collaboration.

Catherine specializes in pre-Columbian art history and arts of the Americas, with research focusing on the conquest period in central Mexico. She has recently published her second book, The Codex Borbonicus Veintena Imagery: Visualizing History, Time, and Ritual in Aztec Solar-year Festivals (Amsterdam 2025), which she takes a highly specialized exploration into Aztec painted books depicting indigenous calendars and public ceremonies. Delving beyond the extant written texts on this topic, Catherine decided to focus specifically on the imagery available in the ancient tradition of pictorial manuscripts in Mexico in order to discover what story the images themselves can tell us.

Catherine’s process for writing this monograph blended both structured timed writing sessions with an overall flexibility to avoid burnout.

“I try to write in short sessions most weekday mornings. I use a modified “pomodoro” method, though I am not super strict, working in “poms” of 15-45 minutes at a time with breaks. It is amazing how much you can accomplish in 30 focused minutes. I try not to overdo it on a given day. Keeping in touch with the project makes it so much easier to move forward. CSU Writes retreats were invaluable for longer, dedicated blocks of time to move a section or a chapter forward. It was really rewarding to see things progress regularly over the years and to see it all come together.”

In addition to finding the right balance in her writing time schedule, Catherine benefited most from finding her own writing group: “My writing partners were invaluable in helping me cross the finish line with this latest book.” Her overall advice for other book writers is to create a consistent habit for when you expect to sit down and write, and to do so mindfully in a way that matches your daily energy levels to the level of mental effort each writing/project task requires: “I am most able to concentrate first thing in the mornings and sometimes late afternoon. When energy is low, I work on other stuff. I schedule my activities to capitalize on this.” She argues that if you start with tasks like class prep and grading then you’re unlikely to get to writing that day; instead, make it a point to “write first thing.”

With this second book under her belt, Catherine reflects on how her writing practice has transformed since she first became a professor: “Writing has become a regular part of my work schedule now, not just something I fit in around other tasks. It’s still a challenge (!), and every project takes longer than I expect, but it’s more manageable and enjoyable now.”

Catherine’s prior book on Aztec Art and Ritual can be accessed here:  Sweeping the Wary: Divine Transformation in the Aztec Festival of Ochpanizltli (University Press of Colorado, 2009).

We are thrilled to announce that CSU Writes is now housed within the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR), marking an exciting new chapter in the program’s evolution. This move strengthens the alignment between CSU Writes’ mission to support scholarly writers across the career span and the OVPR’s commitment to accelerating research and amplifying CSU’s global impact.

Since its founding, CSU Writes has provided practical, research-driven support for the development of graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, and others as writers. The product of our research and scholarship is made visible through written documents, or in other words, “good research is good writing.”

Now, as part of the OVPR, CSU Writes will expand its ability to meet college- and discipline-specific needs for writing-centered professional development and mentoring. CSU Writes’ new home reinforces Colorado State University’s land-grant mission by investing in the people behind the research who will continue to learn and grow across their careers as intentional, confident, and impactful writers.

This institutional move offers fresh opportunities as we explore how to integrate writing and communication throughout research development efforts here at CSU and to build a research culture where writing is recognized both as a skill of expertise and a core scholarly practice.

CSU Writes extends gratitude to the staff and leadership of the Graduate School, where it was housed for more than eight years. Their support and collaboration were instrumental in establishing CSU Writes as a trusted resource for research writers at every stage of their academic and professional journeys.

In response to the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI and its growing presence in research and scholarly writing, CSU Writes developed an “AI-Use Agreement for Co-Authors” for the Faculty Writes workshop on “How to AI: Tools, Guides, and Conversations.” The AI-use agreement is designed to help co-authors and collaborative teams navigate the often uncomfortable conversations about the responsible and ethical use of AI programs or other text predictive software in collaborative projects.

The AI-use agreement outlines shared expectations for using AI tools when coauthoring, including phases of brainstorming, drafting, editing, and citation management. The “AI-Use Agreement” emphasizes human oversight, transparency among colleagues, and awareness of journal or institutional guidelines. The template can help authors establish a clear process for documenting which tools are used, for what purposes, and ensures that all AI-assisted content is reviewed and revised by humans prior to submission.

Note that the agreement prohibits the use of AI for data interpretation because a project’s analysis and purported meaning is, to date, a uniquely human contribution. It also limits the generation of citations to software such as Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote since many AI chatbots are likely to miscite or manufacture citations.

It clarifies that the final review of any manuscript or proposal remains the responsibility of the lead author or others agreed upon the collaborators because only human text generators hold copyrights or can be listed as authors on a publication. AI should not be used for the final manuscript review before submission. As much as we might disagree or have conflicting writing styles, human writers must be the arbiters of authorial voice and scholarly integrity on a coauthored document.

The AI-use agreement also provides a model AI disclosure statement for manuscripts, helping authors align with journal and institutional requirements.

For research teams looking to initiate thoughtful and transparent conversations about writing together with AI, this agreement document can foster ethical and essential transparency.

If you or your unit is interested talking more about how to (or how not to) incorporate AI text generating programs into your writing projects, reach out to schedule a consultation or a group presentation with CSU Writes.

Copies of the AI-Use Agreement are available for download here.