Getting down to work: Writing Week helps grad students focus

Summer is a great time to head to the beach, take that long-awaited trip — or, if you’re a grad student, to make a dent in that thesis.

Many graduate students devote a good chunk of their summer to making progress on major projects, which is why for the past five years the Writing Centre has hosted a summer Writing Week. The centre’s manager, Margie Clow Bohan, says the idea for the event came in response to requests by grad students, but also from a desire to better support senior students towards the completion of their degrees.

“We want these students to commit to the process of finishing their theses or dissertations,” explains Dr. Bohan. “We also very much want them to feel ‘normal.’ It has been found in the literature and in practice that grad students often suffer from feeling isolated, left on their own without a sense of direction. The students need to know that they are supported in their work. At the Writing Centre, we try to be there for them.”

Giving themselves focus

This year’s Writing Week kicked off on Monday. Around 20 students attended the sessions, with a few more emailing their progress to Writing Centre staff as they worked. Each day, the students gather at 9 a.m. and state their goals for the day. After a day of writing on their own, they return at 4 p.m. to report on their progress. Optional sessions at lunch bring in guest speakers on graduate writing development, covering areas including library resources, use of social media in the research process, strategies for dealing with committee reviews and comments, and basic “good writing” elements. On Friday, students get to meet recent grads, each sharing stories about completing his or her own writing projects.

For the students who take part, Writing Week is an opportunity to put aside all the other responsibilities and distractions of grad student life and focus on their writing.

“This was a way to get myself motivated to write, and to have some personal accountability,” says Aiswarya Baskaran, a master's student in Environmental Studies.

“It’s about accountability, and also being part of a group, knowing that others are in the some position as you,” says Andrea Flynn, a master's student in the Marine Affairs Program.

Supporting writing development

When asked about their writing challenges, many students cite time management and difficulty focusing, especially after the coursework for their degree is completed. Dr. Bohan says students also often mention supervisory/committee involvement as an issue: supervisors struggle with their own workloads and are rarely trained to mentor and coach students through their programs, resulting at times in misunderstandings, resentment and failure to complete programs. Increasingly, English Second (or Additional) Language students are completing grad degrees and having to cope with writing demands in a fairly unfamiliar language.

The Writing Centre helps students work through these challenges. Writing Week may enable students to begin afresh, to commit to the work and start writing. It also encourages students to form a coaching relationship with the centre’s staff, in which students can set goals and coaches can act as document reviewers and even timekeepers to keep the students on track. Grad students are able to book individual appointments with staff or tutors as well, often ones from their own discipline. Finally, Writing Centre staff can help students pull together writing groups from divergent disciplines that, again, can act as support for graduate writers.

“Our mandate is to help students with their writing development — and that includes grad students,” says Dr. Bohan. “We are committed to helping them learn to write effectively and finish off their programs. Writing Week is often a first step on the last leg of their graduate program.”

Learn more about the Writing Centre's free services for students at its website.