Instructions for the Care and Feeding of a Faculty Writing Group

1
(No Transcript)
2
Instructions for the Care and Feeding of a
Faculty Writing Group

• Plymouth State University
• Writing Across the Curriculum Program

3
Liz AhlWAC CoordinatorPlymouth State University
4
Writing Groups For Everyone

• The CWA (Cat Writers Association) and DWAA (Dog
  Writers Association of America) provide members
  with networking opportunities, resources for
  books and articles, writing competitions,
  newsletters and help in covering their respective
  species shows.
• (Choose the Write Group, Anne Bingham, Writer,
  May 2001)

5
Writing Groups For Everyone

• The Garden Writers Association of America (GWAA)
  provides professional development, research, and
  other services to 1950 members in the lawn and
  garden industry in the U.S., Canada, and U.K.

6
Different Dimensions of a Writing Group

• Professional
• Social
• Emotional
• Motivational

7
Professional Dimension

• Keeping professional goals at the forefront
• Measuring successes by such evidence as
  publication or conference presentations
  
• Work done in the context of academia, both within
  and across disciplines
  
• Writing group as a part of my job
• Professional genres

8
Social Dimension

• Crawl out of your brain for coffee and a reality
  check
  
• Chance to reconnect with colleagues while getting
  work done
  
• Disciplinary/departmental bonding
• Discover what colleagues are working on

9
Emotional Dimension

• There are benefits to struggling together rather
  than alone
  
• Affirmation in the form of positive feedback can
  be a writing project lifesaver
  
• Being with trusted readers and be a relief from
  the company of your brutal internal editor

10
Motivational Dimension

• Sometimes, you need someone to take you to task
  for not working
  
• Friendly competition can help many writers
  produce quality work
  
• A group-specific system of rewards for the
  achievement of writing goals might help keep
  everyone motivated

11
Questions to Ask When Forming or Joining a
Writing Group

• What are my general writing goals?
• What are my project-specific writing goals?
• What specific or general writing goals are
  motivating me to join a writing group?
  
• How will participating regularly in a writing
  group help me attain those goals?

12
Questions to Ask When Forming or Joining a
Writing Group

• How much time am I willing to devote to my
  writing?
  
• How much time am I willing to devote to the
  writing of my colleagues?

13
Questions to Ask When Forming or Joining a
Writing Group

• What do I expect from a reader of my
  works-in-progress?
  
• What do I expect to contribute as a reader of
  others works-in-progress?

14
Questions to Ask When Forming or Joining a
Writing Group

• What are my strengths and weaknesses as a writer
  and responder?
  
• What is my hope about joining a writing group?
  What is my fear?
  

15
Questions to Ask When Forming or Joining a
Writing Group

• What are my priorities for a writing group?
• New writing or revising and sending out older
  writing?
  
• Getting feedback, or writing new work?
• Feedback from colleagues in my discipline, or
  from across the disciplines?
  
• Do I want a social or emotional support
  element, or do I want to stay strictly
  professional?
  
• Am I willing to read and respond in detail to
  book-length writing, or only to
  article/chapter-length works?
  
• Whats more important to me professional
  publication, or personal satisfaction?

16
The PT Group

• Focused primarily on Professional AND Emotional
  Dimensions
  
• Three members from three disciplines they met
  during New Faculty Orientation
  
• GROUP OBJECTIVE Work on written materials which
  will be included in promotion and tenure files
  
• Meeting Schedule Application deadline is next
  October group will meet every other Monday for
  1-2 hours during the spring semester, once a
  month during the summer, and as needed in the
  fall
• Meeting Routine Check-ins -- what everyone has
  done since the last meeting distribute new
  materials to workshop at next meeting review
  materials distributed last time list questions
  to be answered and goals to be met before next
  meeting

17
The RP Catch-All Group

• primarily Social Dimension
• Seven faculty members who really like RP, but who
  want to focus exclusively on their own writing
  practices for a while
  
• Group Objectives Giving and receiving feedback
  on written works-in-progress -- any genre, any
  discipline.
  
• Very workshop oriented
• Larger membership might allow for members to
  migrate as needed
  
• Meeting Schedule Every week for one hour
  regular rotation of workshopping so everyone
  gets a turn
  
• Meeting Routine Distribute work, cram in as much
  workshopping as time allows

18
All Work and No Play Group

• Entirely professional
• Only written work in the authors professional
  field submitting to peer-reviewed journals for
  scholarly publication
  

19
Discipline Specific Group

• The Business Faculty Writing Group
• Membership open to as many of the Business
  Department Faculty as are interested
  
• GOALS support faculty writing projects in the
  Business Department share resources and
  information regarding conferences, journal
  publication opportunities, etc. give feedback to
  members on works in progress develop,
  collaboratively, conference proposals and
  presentations publicize (within the department
  and across the campus) projects and achievements
  of writers in the department
• Meeting Schedule/Routine -- Meets weekly and
  determines an agenda week-to-week

20
The Guilting Bee

• Primarily Motivational also Professional
• Four to six members from any discipline no
  limits on genre, scope, or disposition of end
  product
  
• GROUP OBJECTIVES Writing comes first. No excuses
  for not producing. Stop complaining and start
  writing.
  
• All members MUST produce a given number of new
  pages every two weeks
  
• Meeting Schedule and Routine Meet every week for
  a two hour session alternate between two-hour
  workshop/feedback sessions and two-hour writing
  sessions
• Miss one meeting or one deadline, and youre on
  probation. Miss a second and youre out.
  

21
The Dissertation Posse

• Motivational, Professional and Emotional
  dimensions
  
• Members 3-5 new/newish faculty seeking to
  transform/revise their dissertations into
  publishable scholarly or creative works
  
• Members willing to do a lot of reading and look
  at big picture as well as line-level editing
  
• Members write authors notes which entail their
  purposes in writing, their agenda for revision,
  their goals for the manuscript, and any
  instructions a reader might need
• Meeting Schedule and Routine Each dissertation
  draft gets read in full and commented on
  extensively at the beginning of the semester
  suggested revisions are workshopped during the
  course of the following semester or year.

22
Writing Buddies

• Motivational, Professional
• Group of two people who have committed to meet at
  least once a month to share new work
  
• Commit to emailing at least once a week, RE
  writing projects, evolving goals, questions about
  writing possibilities, etc.

23
More incentives to form and and maintain a
productive faculty writing group?

• At Santa Clara University, the Faculty
  Development Program
  
• supports research writing groups and grant
  writing groups for
  
• faculty by (among other things) providing funds
  for the purchase of food
  
• and materials!
• http//www.scu.edu/provost/facultydevelopment/writ
  inggroups.cfm