SPRING 2025 SPEAKERS
What to Know for the Final Stretch
Guidance for graduate students when submitting theses, dissertations, and articles
FEB 20, 12-1:30pm TEAMS
The Sit-less Revolution: Simple Strategies to Get Active In Your Writing Practice and Life
APR 2, 12-1:00pm LSC 376-378
In today’s fast-paced academic world, it’s easy to slip into a routine of long hours, endless meetings, and seemingly constant desk time. But what if small, simple changes could spark greater productivity, keep energy levels up, and improve overall health? Guest presented by Skylar Yu, this session explores practical ways to bring movement into the workday—from quick, in-office exercises to standing desks and active workstations—and uncover simple ways to stay active after hours. Together, we’ll look at how a balanced 24-hour activity cycle can improve both physical and mental well-being, and help each of us thrive across our academic journeys. Come ready to learn, share, and find the perfect balance of work and wellness.
About the Presenter:
Skylar Yu is a third-year PhD student in the Psychology Department at CSU, studying healthy lifestyles with a particular focus on sedentary behaviors and physical activity. Her research on activity-permissive workstations has earned four distinguished awards from the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity in the past year.
Archive of Past Speakers & Panels
FALL 2024
Dr. Helen Sword
2 workshops - 1 day
morning OR afternoon OR both
if you attend both, please stay for lunch! 12-1pm
Writing Intelligently with AI
10am - 12pm
How can you make the most of artificially intelligent chatbots such as ChatGPT without degrading your writing skills or selling your soul? In this interactive workshop – suitable for AI aficionados and newbies alike – international writing expert Dr Helen Sword will guide you through a series of exercises designed to help you find the why in your interactions with these ubiquitous, rapidly evolving research tools. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have developed your own personal strategies and guidelines for writing thoughtfully and effectively both with and without generative AI.
Creative Approaches to Research Writing
1 - 3pm
In this playful, hands-on workshop, international writing expert Helen Sword will guide you through arts-based approaches to your research and academic writing. Following a brief overview of the research literature on the cognitive benefits of creative activity, you’ll undertake a series of “creative invitations” designed to expand your cognitive horizons via story, poetry, drama, movement, metaphor, and the visual arts.
Dr. Peter Gorsuch
former editor at Nature & developer of the Nature Masterclass
Taking the Plunge: How Generative AI Can Boost Scientific Writing
Join us for lunch and to learn about AI and research writing with Dr. Peter Gorsuch, former Research Editor at Nature.
While generative AI is upending functions such as coding and copywriting, it has had limited impact in scientific research writing, in part because of the inherent limitations of large language models and in part because of resistance from writers, funders, and publishers. At the moment, it’s therefore easy to avoid using AI in scientific writing. Yet, some scientific writers find AI extremely useful. The current impasse is not likely to last long – generative AI is likely to become an expected researcher skill, perhaps very soon.
In this talk, Peter will first elaborate on the current situation and how it’s likely to change. He will then lean on his background in author support and his first-hand experience of GPT prompt engineering to identify some practical ways in which AI can nevertheless greatly improve efficiency in certain aspects of research writing.
SPRING 2024
Fit Writing: Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, Textually
Research and scholarly writing require that we sit to work—a lot. If “sitting is the new smoking,” we must also recognize that our pursuit of writing excellence may be taking a physical toll on our bodies. Functional Fitness personal trainer Heber Howard will present simple ways we can build and maintain muscular strength alongside our building out manuscripts and proposals. The exercises shared in this session can be done without fancy equipment or going to the gym. CSU Writes will have yoga mats and resistance bands for participants to borrow and practice.
This session is part of the Write Well series for Spring 2024. Lunch buffet for diverse food needs will be provided. Register early.
Fit Writing: Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, Textually
Research and scholarly writing require that we sit to work—a lot. If “sitting is the new smoking,” we must also recognize that our pursuit of writing excellence may be taking a physical toll on our bodies. Functional Fitness personal trainer Heber Howard will present simple ways we can build and maintain muscular strength alongside our building out manuscripts and proposals. The exercises shared in this session can be done without fancy equipment or going to the gym. CSU Writes will have yoga mats and resistance bands for participants to borrow and practice.
This session is part of the Write Well series for Spring 2024. Lunch buffet for diverse food needs will be provided. Register early.
Writing with Ease and Grace: Getting out of the way of what lies in the way
Writing is a challenge for many in academia, yet it is most compelling when done with ease and grace. In practice there are hurdles in the way. Some of these hurdles involve a lack of practical skills, these can be overcome by taking a class, course, or other ways to improve. But many of us face personal hurdles in writing with ease and grace. Examples of these include the curse of perfection, a wish to not be vulnerable and keep a low profile, or a sense of having to do it all alone. In this interactive workshop we discuss the barriers we encounter in effective writing, and ways to overcome these barriers.
This session is part of the Write Well series for Spring 2024. Lunch buffet for diverse food needs will be provided. Register early.
Tell Your Story: Memoir Methods for Researchers
What first brought you to advanced research or scholarly studies? What will be your research or scholarly legacy? How do you craft the story of your career to help others understand your work and contributions to a field of study
Everyone has a story to tell—a memory held onto that begs to be captured and framed, or perhaps released or reframed. Whatever your memoir goals are, this workshop is aimed at helping you get your story out. Modeled after CSU’s Military-connected Writing Workshop, this event is aimed at extracting, through targeted writing prompts, memories about significant moments in life. Don’t know if you have a story to tell? Come find out! No experience necessary. This session is open to all writers on campus
This session is part of the Write Well series for Spring 2024. Lunch buffet for diverse food needs will be provided. Register early.
FALL 2023
AI & Research Writing: A Discussion with CSU Researchers
Predictive generative and corrective writing tools (think Grammarly) have been used by research writers for more than a decade. Recent developments in probabilistic text generation (think ChatGPT) have brought large language models (LLM) to the forefront of our conversations about how we write and how we engage and assess knowledge production. This CSU Writes hosted discussion session provides a space for CSU to consider how our researchers and scholars are understanding, skill-building, and navigating text generative software.
Citation and Review Event
ETD Information Session: Experts from the Graduate School & Library
SEPT 20, 3-3:50pm MT
Held on MSTeams
CSU Writes is grateful to partner with the amazing librarians at Morgan Library and experts in the Graduate School to support research writers as they locate, gather, read, and manage their research sources. Remember to THANK our CSU librarians GS support staff regularly. Their often hidden efforts support all the amazing research we do here!
This session covers where to go for information about ETD submission processes and paperwork as well as the basics of copyright and ProQuest as they pertain to graduate student theses and dissertations.
SPRING 2023
Wellbeing across the Research Career
with Dr. Roel Snieder
Geophysicist & Distinguished Chair of Professional Development Education at Colorado School of Mines
Please place your lunch order when you register. Please take care with campus resources and register only if you commit to attending.
When asked, academic faculty often will say that they have the dream job that combines research and teaching, while being very free. Yet, academics are not a particularly happy and care-free group. The pressures of academic life are real.
Yet, where have we learned how to live with these pressures, and how to navigate the emotional waters of high-paced academic life?
In this workshop we will examine some of the communal beliefs that we hold, beliefs that tend to elevate our stress levels and feelings of not being “enough.”
We will also address the concept of the internal dialogue, and cover techniques to help manage emotions. In this interactive workshop there is scope for conversation and for addressing topics that are of particular interests for participants.
All spots have been filled for this event and registration is closed.
LUNCH OPTIONS:
Lory Croissant |Smoked turkey, bacon, Swiss cheese, avocado, lettuce, and tomato on a butter croissant
The Grinder | Genoa salami, pepperoni, capicola and Provolone cheese; topped with shredded lettuce, tomato; served on fresh ciabatta bread
Garden Vegetable Wrap | Roasted squash and zucchini, pesto hummus, sautéed carrot, kale, bell pepper and ripe olives
The Collegiate | Roast beef, smoked turkey breast, Dutch gouda cheese, tomato, and lettuce on freshly-baked bread
Vegan Reuben | Avocado, tempeh, Dijon mustard, Russian dressing, and curtido on a fresh torta bun
Fall 2021
small panel/BIG TOPIC
Writing Grant Proposals for Postdocs & Graduate Students
This small panel/BIG TOPIC features experts from CSU’s Research Acceleration Office. They will discuss grant landscapes, resources, and writing strategies.
BALANCING CAREGIVING & ACADEMIC WORK
SEPT 23, 2021
Negotiating the time constraints for academic research and writing with caregiving requires innovative strategies. Discover a set of flexible, time efficient strategies and tools for writing and working that permit you to adapt to changing caregiving circumstances in the age of COVID-19. This workshop is designed for faculty, graduate students, researchers and postdoctoral fellows with caregiving responsibilities.
Spring 2021
Citation & Source Management Software: Learn from Library Experts
If you are curious about the differences between EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley, this is the information session for you! This is a “small panel/BIG TOPIC” talk gives by experts on resource source management from CSU libraries.
Spring 2019
What Can John Oliver Teach Us about Writing Science?
A small panel comprised of CSU’s dogged champions for improving the quality of STEM writing produced at CSU.
Dr. Stu Tobet of Biomedical Sciences and Dr. Susan De Long of Civil & Environmental Engineering will speak about existing models and strategies to improve the quality of your writing.
This panel is open to all CSU writers but may be of most interest to STEM writers. As its title suggests, the panel with offer an informed and dynamic conversation about the value with writing strategies to communicate science seriously.
2018
Strategies for Applying for NIH Postdoc & Graduate Fellowships
Tatiana Nekrasova-Beker & Tony Becker
Linguists with specialities in TEFL/TESL & Assistant Professors in English Department at CSU
2017
John Calderazzo
Joli Jensen, PhD
Hazel Rogers Professor of Media Studies University of Tulsa
Director, Henneke Faculty Writing Program
Write No Matter What. Advice for Academics.
