Category: News

Spring semester is here! We know that before the flowers start blooming, the snow has to finish falling—and we also know that before we finish writing, we must begin, build momentum, or get un-stuck. Luckily, CSU Writes has a semester full of offerings intended to help you with your writing, whether it be through workshops, writing sessions, or book club. Here’s what’s on tap for CSU Writes Spring 2022:

Book Club: March 1, 5-6:30pm LSC 322

This semester we will be reading Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. Burkeman, a self-proclaimed “productivity junky,” put productivity into context and helps us realign what we find meaningful with how we focus our attention.

We selected Four Thousand Weeks for this semester’s CSU Writes’ book club because we know that sustainable writing and healthful productivity contribute to a meaningful career and to our wellbeing. Let’s get together to talk about embracing realistic limits and “getting meaningful things done, here and now, in our work and our lives together,”  to quote Oliver Burkeman.

GRAD Writes:

This spring’s workshops include sessions devoted to helping you build writing habits, your writing approach, and articles for publication. GRAD Writes supports graduate student writers as they become experts in their respective fields of study. Research on writing retreat and write-on-site sessions shows that writers use retreats and community writing sessions to build stronger writing habits and to write more efficiently and effectively.

Most spring semester offerings will be virtual. Select workshops and writing sessions, however, will be offered in person.

Monday, Feb. 14^th 11-11:50a Electronic Thesis & Dissertation (ETD) Information Session

Workshops

Feb. 9^th 2-2:50 Write at Speed I: The Basics

Feb 10^th, 2-2:50 Abstracts

Feb 14^th, 11-11:50 ETD Information Session

Feb 16^th, 2-2:50 Write at Speed II: Advance Methods

Feb. 24^th, 2-2:50 Reverse Outlining: Sources/Manuscripts

Mar. 9^th, 2-2:50 Punctuation

Mar. 10^th, 2-2:50 Getting & Using Feedback

Mar. 23^rd, 2-3:30 Summary/Paraphrase: Avoid Plagiarism (in-person)

Apr. 6^th, 2-2:50 Overcoming Writing Stalls: Build Habits

Apr. 14^th, 2-2:50  Revising: Clarity & Concision

Apr. 19^th, 2-2:50 Engaging a Variety of Audiences

Apr. 20^th, 2-3:30 Active & Passive Voice (in-person)

 

Retreats

Fri., 3-4:30p Prep Session

Sat., 8:30-4:30 Full-Day Session

Feb. 11^th-12^th

Mar. 11^th-12^th

Apr. 8^th-9^th

Spring semester is here! We know that before the flowers start blooming, the snow has to finish falling—and we also know that before we finish writing, we must begin, build momentum, or get un-stuck. Luckily, CSU Writes has a semester full of offerings intended to help you with your writing, whether it be through workshops, writing sessions, or book club. Here’s what’s on tap for CSU Writes Spring 2022:

Book Club: March 1, 5-6:30pm LSC 322

This semester we will be reading Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. Burkeman, a self-proclaimed “productivity junky,” put productivity into context and helps us realign what we find meaningful with how we focus our attention.

We selected Four Thousand Weeks for this semester’s CSU Writes’ book club because we know that sustainable writing and healthful productivity contribute to a meaningful career and to our wellbeing. Let’s get together to talk about embracing realistic limits and “getting meaningful things done, here and now, in our work and our lives together,”  to quote Oliver Burkeman.

Check out our GRAD Writes, FACULTY Writes, and Book Club semester offerings!

Accountability Programs

DATA: Dissertation and Thesis Accountability

INTERNATIONAL Writes (Tuesdays, 3-5pm, in-person)

 

show up & write. M-F 8a-5p

Write for Publication (WtP) I: a 13-week course

WtP II: Article Writing Accountability

 

Write to Publish Schedule

Feb. 3^rd Writing for Publication

Feb. 10^th Abstracts

Feb. 17^th Literature Review

Feb. 24^th Reverse Outlining

Mar. 10^th Getting/Using Feedback

Mar. 24^th Revising: Organization and Flow

Mar. 31^st Presenting & Integrating Evidence

Apr. 7^th Openings and Conclusions

Apr. 14^th Revising: Clarity & Concision

Apr. 21^st Submitting: Cover Letters

Apr. 28^th Responding to Readers

Complete the WtP course for a certificate!

 

Additional questions about our offerings? Email csuwrites@colostate.edu.

As experts or becoming-experts in our fields of study, we will continue to encounter new writing forms and challenges as we build our careers. What new modes of scholarly communication do we, and will we, learn or create? To address the ever-fluid and changing realms of what we writers do not yet know, have not yet experienced, or take for granted, CSU Writes is introducing a newsletter series called “Demystifying,” wherein we will pick up topics about the often hidden and mysterious whats, the hows, and the whys of research and academic writing. The first in this series is shares one graduate student’s experience with demystifying the dissertation for family and friends.

While the structure and content of a dissertation will reflect the specialties and expertise of a doctoral student’s discipline, committee, research findings and/or scholarly analyses so that each writer’s dissertation will be unique, dissertations also have some shared general characteristics: extensive (large) document, formatted according to the degree-granting institutions requirements, and make a significant contribution to a field of study.

The dissertation is broadly an expression of scholarly work that summarizes a graduate student’s research and expertise on a certain topic. It can take years of writing and editing, recommended by dissertation committee members, often made up of department members and topic-area experts who serve as guides, readers, and reviewers. The dissertation process is both one of writing and relationship-building over many years of doctoral study.

The dissertation writing process can sound daunting, and that’s because it is. Not only is the dissertation a uniquely academic undertaking, the time and attention required by the task at hand is highly unusual. In the United States, less than 5% of the adult population (or around 2% of total population) has a Ph.D. (census.gov)

Recent graduate Dr. Teri Gadd struggled explaining it to her family and friends outside of the academy. She notes, “there’s not a great understanding of the dissertation. They think it’s a book report, and it’s not.” And, because dissertations are large, complex, book-length documents, they can take years to complete.

Even the most well-meaning and supportive family and friends may become impatient with a dissertator, assuming like a class paper, the dissertation should be done within a semester or two.

Because dissertation writing itself is a process, writers must balance research, writing, and editing with all the other things life demands. This is why a specific type of self-care is necessary. “…as someone once told me, just like a car needs to go get check-ups and maintenance and oil changes, so do you need those maintenance things. The most important thing is sleep. Set a schedule where you treat that sleep and self-care time as not optional,” offered Teri.

This might seem like basic survival advice, but in reality, the amount of effort required to complete the PhD can infringe upon those day-to-day necessities like getting enough rest and eating nutritious food.

CSU Writes Director Kristina Quynn offers the following advice to writers who seek better understand the nature and process of dissertating: “While it may seem counterintuitive or of little consolation, but a graduate student writer will best understand their dissertation by writing the dissertation, which almost always takes longer than we want it to take.”

If you become impatient with your own dissertation writing process, it may help to contextualize the dissertation as a book-length manuscript–like your favorite novel, biography, or self-help paperback.

And, if your family and friends want to know when your dissertation will be “done.” Remind yourself that they have your interests at heart, Thank them for their interest in your process and success. Then you can gently share that it took J.R.R. Tolkien twelve years to write The Lord of the Rings. In comparison, your plan to complete your dissertation well ahead of Tolkien’s schedule!

So, let’s get to it! You do not have to do it alone.

 

CSU Writes offers programming to work on dissertation writing and editing. Those events include:

 

DATA: Dissertation and Thesis Accountability 

show up & write. M-F 8a-5p

Write to Publish (W2P-II) I: a 13-week course

W2P-II: Article Writing Accountability

Find more of our Spring 2022 events here.

We are thrilled to announce Laurel Bond will offer Tuesday afternoon drop-in writing sessions for international non-native English writing graduate students (postdoctoral fellows and visiting faculty are welcome, too).

If English is your second, third, or even fourth language, and you are looking for a quiet place to write where you can also ask questions about writing in English from a knowledgeable instructor, International Writes is the place for you!

Each Tuesday’s session will start with a short, guided conversation about writing in English with writing advice, reminders, and strategies.

Drop-in. Write. Query. Learn. Progress.

FEB 8 – May 3

Tuesdays, 3-5pm, LSC 390 (conference room on north side)

About the facilitator: English writing instructor Laurel Bond has been teaching courses in graduate level writing (GRAD 580A, GRAD550, and now GRAD530/540) for years. Her instruction has created space for conversations the types of documents graduate students write—ranging from course assignments to literature reviews, to drafts of articles for publication, and more. A couple of the courses that Bond teaches are designed for CSU’s International, non-native English writing graduate students. Working with students whose first language (or second or third) is not English is Bond’s specialty and devotion. We are lucky to have her leading International Writes in 2022.

More on the INTERNATIONAL Writes WEBPAGE HERE.

For Dr. Teri Gadd, earning her doctorate took additional grit, determination, and community. The former she found within herself. The latter she found through CSU Writes.

Teri Gadd set her mind to attaining a Ph.D. in horticulture and landscape architecture fourteen years ago. The process took time away from family, and perseverance through unseen obstacles and pleasures. She researched the interaction between tree stress physiology of lodgepole pine and behavior of mountain pine beetle.

Her mastery of entomology and plant-tree physiology is extensive, Teri faced sharp learning curves from the start her PhD journey. For example, Teri has ADHD, so it takes longer for her to write and focus, and it can be difficult for her to move from thought formation, to speech, to getting that idea down on paper.

While things like literature reviews and the politics of higher education took additional time for Teri to understand and navigate, her learning disabilities meant another layer of time and effort were applied to her work. Many of her peers did not understand or share that experience.

CSU Writes provided Teri a richly supportive community to engage with and teach her things that everyone else seemed to know.

“Every single grad student, myself included, needs to know they are not the only ones struggling in this process…[CSU Writes programming] would’ve been a game changer for me earlier in my earlier graduate career so I could ask questions and get answers and not feel like I crawled out from under a rock,” Teri said recently in conversation with CSU Writes Director Kristina Quynn.

CSU Writes facilitated Teri’s research writing in a variety of ways, the core of its utility was in meeting Teri where she was at. It wasn’t that she couldn’t write or didn’t understand what she was learning, pursuing a PhD was just a new experience that didn’t come with instructions.

“I learned through all the different CSU Writes workshops how to edit, I learned how to write fast, I learned how to structure my writing schedule and all that because I had been a binge writer and it was such a huge effort and waste of time to overcome how much I had forgotten…like taking little notes so I can pick back up…it saved me hours.”

For Teri, the value of CSU Writes cannot be overstated. “CSU Writes was my lifeline…it gave me hope and structure. Just the things I was taught at each retreat, the one-on-one sessions…just talking with other students who are having the same struggles buoyed me up and I started to have hope.”

Now, Teri runs her own business where she’s “helping and doing” and using her research every day. We celebrate Teri’s accomplishments and express our gratitude that she wished to share her story of success with other CSU research and scholarly writers.

If you or a colleague seek a community of experts or becoming-experts to move your research writing forward, reach out to CSU Writes. We are here when you need us.

The holiday season with our designated semester breaks is a time when academics reconnect with family and friends but may become disconnected from our research or scholarly writing projects. No holiday season or break is the same, but all can be made better with some initial planning and some tried and true strategies.

Perhaps this is your winter break plan: to put your writing on hold and to take a break from all things academe.

Perhaps, however, you have a combo rest and work winter break plan: to spend time away and to spend time moving projects forward.

Or, perhaps your plan is to write consistently from December 22, 2021, when CSU closes for break, to January 18, 2022, when the spring semester starts. If you have a regular writing practice (e.g. 30+ minutes per day), this may be “your jam” and the way you live your best and fullest life. If, however, looming deadlines require you to work over break even as you wish otherwise, remember to balance your daily efforts so that you build in time away from writing: rest and recreation, walks, dinners with friends, designated time with an activity you enjoy (puzzles or coloring, anyone?).

Regardless of your winter break plans, you can draw on and modify the pack up and pick up strategies below to help you get back into writing on your project more quickly and efficiently. These are simple—even obvious—reminders that we all too easily forget to do, but when we implement them, they help us build momentum on our projects over time (even when taking breaks). We practice these techniques in the CSU Writes’ writing retreats, and they are useful for everyday or every semester writing:

To pack up (at the end of your writing session):

• Use a writing log or journal to record what your worked on and progress made in your session. Include details like project name, section attended to, and accomplishments made.
  • Experiment with the data/metrics that work best for your tracking. You could focus on words, pages, sections, or time spent engaged.
• Record notes about next steps or new directions while your mind is fresh and connected to the project. Jot down instructions for your next writing session:
  • Do you need to reach out to contributors? Do you need to craft an additional figure or paragraph? Do you need to review additional literature?
  • It can help to imagine sitting down at that next session: what will make it easier for you to jump back in?
• Organize your writing space (desk, computer desktop) so that your log/journal/materials are ready and available upon your return.
  • If you live and work in the same space and will need to use your writing space for other tasks while away, consider using a project box to contain your writing project, files, log/journal until your return. Close your project box when you have finished writing for the day; open it when you return.

To pick up (at the start of your writing session):

• Open your writing log/journal and review your next steps.
  • Have you thought of additional tasks for this first session? Add them to your task list.
• Spend a few moments identifying which tasks will be best to tackle first, second, and so forth. Which tasks will require additional steps, writing sessions or planning?
  • If needed or as part of your new semester’s writing process, plan to use a portion of your writing session as a planning session.

If a writing project is left for a day or two, we can usually pick it up and reengage quickly. There is no need to reconnect and reorient ourselves to the “what, where, why, and how” of our next steps. That is because we will have built momentum, which is maintained by our consistent and timely return to our writing. We will likely have pondered the next steps in the prior (or midnight) hours—preparing our minds to add new insights, conceptual framings, connections, or language to the document.

The goal with navigating any pause in writing production—whether a day or two, a week or more—is to build a conceptual bridge to reconnect you with your project so that you can move forward quickly. The key to bridge-building is to pack up your project at the close of your working session so that you can pick up when you return. May you have a wonderous winter break—no matter your writing plans—with a well-rested return to your writing, just as you have planned.

At a time when high-tech connections and communications have become increasingly central to our research and scholarly work, CSU Writes has taken a step back to embrace the technology of the book. After recommending dozens of books in writing workshops and retreats, CSU Writes has launched a book club to bring CSU’s graduate student, postdoc, researcher, and faculty writers together to talk about recent publications that matter to the work we do.

Fall 2021, Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth (Metropolitan Books, 2020) by Stuart Ritchie is an extended look at the impact of poorly or unethically written science. Focusing on well-known cases of scientific misconduct, Ritchie reminds us that good science is good writing. His book provides “an insider’s view of science reveals why many scientific results cannot be relied upon – and how the system can be reformed.”

Spring 2022, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2021) by Oliver Burkeman is “is about making the most of our radically finite lives in a world of impossible demands, relentless distraction and political insanity (and ‘productivity techniques’ that mainly just make everyone feel busier).” Burkeman reminds us that the problem with most productivity advice and strategies is that they actually work. We may find that we become ever more efficient as we become less engaged with the meaning of our work—feeling ever more stressed and less satisfied. While Burkeman’s book does not specifically address research writing productivity, his insights and tips are incredibly valuable for those of us who study, research, and write in academe, today.

The books selected for CSU Writes’ Book Club focus on current issues that will be relevant to writers across all colleges, disciplines, and career-statuses. CSU Writes has 10 copies of each book to sponsor readers. You can register and find more information on the CSU Writes’ Book Club page.

It’s late November, which can only mean one thing—the end of the semester is right around the corner. Compiled in this list are resources and events to help graduate students power through the most wonderful, and most stressful, time of the year. Writing well means using our resources well.

 

Do you need…

 

help finding additional sources for your research?

Email Kristy Nowak at Morgan Library. She can assist by connecting you with subject-specific librarians and answer general research questions.

a quiet place to work?

Reserve a study room at Morgan Library. You can reserve up to three hours a day one week in advance.

tech assistance?

If you just need a tech tune-up, you can access the Computer Diagnostic Center for free at Morgan Library. If you need some extensive help, the Computer Repair Center is located at RamTech in Lory Student Center.

aid securing groceries? 

Writing well requires that we eat well. Rams Against Hunger provides multiple resources to students, faculty, and staff experiencing food insecurity. The Lory Student Center (room 140) is home to the main Rams Against Hunger Food Pantry. They are closed Saturday-Tuesday and open from 3-6p on Wednesdays and Thursdays and from 9a-12p on Fridays. There are additional Rams Against Hunger Pocket Pantries proximate to campus. You can find those locations here.

a mental health check-in?

Writing well also means caring for our mental health. SilverCloud Health offers self-guided online programs based on Cognitive Behavioral therapy to help you enhance well-being, manage anxiety and depression, improve your sleep, boost your body image, and more. The Nod App offers suggestions for strengthening social ties using evidence-based practices. These online mental health resources are available to you 24/7.

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of harming themselves or others, please call 970-494-4200 (SummitStone Health Partners, available 24/7).

Graduate students can access additional wellness resources through the Wellness Competencies webpage on Graduate School website.

____________________________________________________________________________

Remember, you have CSU Writes cheering you on through this time! We are looking forward to the respite ahead and sending you strength to finish the semester strong.

 

 

In fall of 2020, I joined the CSU Writes team to intern as the lead support on the Writing Accountability for Research Projects (WARP) program. Actually, I didn’t know anything about WARP until I interviewed and was selected as a CSU Writes intern. I am the fourth WARPer intern, and, as with those who held this position before me, I have been sworn to secrecy about what participating researcher share about their weekly research goals and writing success behind-the-scenes. But here are some highlights of CSU Writes’ best kept secret I can share with you about WARP.

The WARP package is currently only available to upper-level writers such as post-docs, staff scientists, and faculty members. It promotes consistent writing in concert with short and long-term goals. The package is typically structured at semester-lengths and begins with the identification of semester-long writing goals. Participants receive an email at the beginning of each week that contains a writing tip, and inquired about the writer’s goals for that week, which are then logged. At the end of the week that writer is asked if they accomplished their designated goals.

This year marked an especially difficult time to devote to writing as many faculty experienced additional workloads in response to pandemic-related university changes. Jaclyn Stephens, an assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy, says, “Given all the pandemic-related disruptions to both research and teaching, I didn’t feel that I had made much research progress this semester. However, at the end of the semester, WARP reminded me of the goals I had set in August, and I was happily surprised to see how many I had met.”

CSU Writes facilitates the development of sustainable writing practices by cultivating writing efforts. From guest speakers and panels, to weekly drop-in writing sessions and regular writing group gatherings, CSU Writes maintains a variety of approaches to foster a positive and effective writing culture. As Dr. John Pippen, Assistant Professor of Music and “show up & write.” proctor puts it, “I don’t worry about publishing. I just show up and write.”

In addition to providing writing tips catered to maneuvering the changes this year brought, WARP assessed the goal-completion of each participant by calculating the percentage of completed goals according to the number of goals set. Doing so helped the writers reflect on their goal setting/accomplishing practices. The WARP program will continue to log goal related information and relay this data back to participants. We hope to provide additional details such as lull periods in the semester so writers can identify when in the semester writing progress is most affected. In 2022, WARP will extend beyond the individual package options and pilot team support as well. In scientific and scholarly projects, writing is often done collaboratively; therefore, we expect WARP to be especially beneficial in a setting where group goals are set and evaluated on a weekly basis.

CSU Writes will continue to evolve to best suit the needs of professional CSU writers, whether that means mending in response to a pandemic, or simply developing new programs and expanding current programs to provide the best support. No matter if your field is English literary studies, or computational physics, writing is a necessity. Rather than writing be a component of our jobs that we dread and put off until the final minute, what if writing was the professional task we were most excited about?

As the WARP lead support, I am excited to help you share with the world your accomplishments in the coming year!