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.
DATA: Dissertation and Thesis Accountability
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.
The Spring 2026 DATA cohort will meet every Monday from FEB 2 – MAY 4:
- Hybrid: In-Person (location TBD) & TEAMS
- 12-30 – 12:45pm – weekly goal setting, accomplishments reporting, and timely project discussions.
- 12:45 – 2:30pm – optional writing session.
Register any time during the semester to enjoy writing your thesis/dissertation through brief, frequent, low stress, and rewarding encounters with your project and supportive conversations with your DATA cohort.
Information for Spring 2026 DATA Cohort Participants (Click Here)
Information for Spring 2026 DATA Cohort Participants
DATA Cohort Information
Instructors:
- Kimi Conro – [email protected]
CSU Writes Assistant Director & Doctoral Student in Journalism and Media Communication - Kristina Quynn – [email protected]
CSU Writes Director
- DATA Cohort Introduction Presentation (click to view recording)
- Writing Group Best Practices (click to download)
Accountability & Writing Productivity Resources
- Weekly Calendar for Planning Writing Time (click to download)
- Writing Log Template (click to download)
- Goal Tracking Sheet (click to download)
- We recommend using this goal tracking sheet to log your progress this semester. You can either download a copy and track your progress privately, or you can add your name to the shared file and track your progress with the group – whichever is more comfortable for you.
- We will discuss our goals and accomplishments as a group in our Monday conversations, so the accountability factor will present either way.
Additional Dedicated Writing Time & Space
If you are looking for extra dedicated writing time and accountability to keep your projects moving forward, check out our other writing session offerings: show up & write., sprint & write., GRAD Writing Retreats, and Write to Publish.
Writing Retreats
Writers who attend retreats access a writing community here at CSU and tend to produce much more writing than they would on their own.
Drop-In Writing Sessions:
show up & write. &
sprint & write.
Drop by for a 2-hour writing session any weekday with show up & write. to help maintain focus and produce more over the semester by writing with others, either in-person or virtually.
Or check out our weekly 2-hour quick-draft writing session made up of timed 20-minute sprints with sprint & write.
Write 2 Publish
Join an interdisciplinary group of graduate students and post-docs for bi-weekly writing lab sessions and bi-weekly webinars designed to guide you through the process of crafting and polishing a manuscript for publication.
RESEARCH WRITERS' GROUPS HANDBOOK
A guide to groups for research writers at multiple stages for multiple projects:
- graduate students
- faculty
- postdoctoral fellows
- soft-money researchers
