Graduate students are invited to join a new writing group. Our first meeting will be held this coming Wednesday (10/12) at 5 pm in Wagner Hall. Please join us!
Graduate Student Writing Group
Every other Wednesday, 5 pm
Wagner Hall 280
For more information, click here.
The following post was written by the Carrots and Sticks writing group. Thanks to Robin, Alicia, Carla, Chris and Rennie for sharing their experiences in this post. And congratulations to the two new Dr.s!
Thank you for giving us an opportunity to share with other graduate students the benefits we've enjoyed by forming a writing group. Our desire to form a group originated in summer 2010 when a couple of us attended The Writing Center's "Camp Completion" whereat forming writing groups was discussed. The name for the group - "The Carrots and Sticks Writing Group" - was inspired by one of the Camp's recommended texts - How to Write A Lot by Paul Silvia. We highly recommend this book to graduate students interested in learning more about forming such groups, and about writing in general. It's brief, filled with humor, and responds with 'kick-in-the-pants pragmatism' to a number of reasons people give for not writing. About Carrots and Sticks:
When it was founded in fall 2010, the group consisted of five doctoral students in three programs in education. We did not know each other collectively then. It was just a matter of trying to round up enough people working on education-related dissertations to form a writing group. Since then, two of us have successfully defended our dissertations! The group gifted our new docs with bouquets of carrots (of course!) and OU pens (to symbolically encourage continued good writing). Indeed, though their immediate writing projects have changed, these members remain active in the group.
How the Writing Group Works:
We consider ourselves an 'accountability group;' not a 'content group'. That means we do not review each other's work, which allows us to be accountable to one another without adding to individual workloads. We meet in the Oklahoma Memorial Union each week for 30 minutes. During the meeting, we record in the group's "Folder of Goals" (Silvia) our accomplishments for the past week and goals for the next one. When goals are met, the group shares in 'carrots' (praise, support, and encouragement to keep on keeping on); when goals are not met, we acknowledge 'sticks' while providing understanding, compassion, and, again, encouragement to keep on keeping on. It’s not uncommon for members to report both 'carrots and sticks' in a given week.
Benefits of Being in the Group:
Our weekly meetings help us individually in scheduling our writing projects. Our mutual commitment to meet and set goals serves as a gentle source of peer pressure that works to keep us writing regularly. After all, none of us like to show up to the meeting and report "sticks!" to the group.
We also schedule occasional writing marathons in which we carve out chunks of time ranging from 5-12 hours to work on individual projects in community. Several of these marathons have been held at The Writing Center (Thank you, Writing Center!); and are always highly productive. At the last marathon, one member had two major dissertation breakthroughs: one that connected important theoretical works, and another related to his research model. We like to think that the dedicated 'brain space' of the marathon experience helped; but either way, we cheered and recorded his breakthroughs in the green folder.
Finally, in addition to giving and receiving ongoing and unconditional friendship and collegial support, we have a deep appreciation for the shared high and low experiences of being doctoral students. We listen to and learn from each other. We trade information about things that work and challenges we encounter, including those related to college and institutional processes. And, perhaps most importantly, we encourage one another to persevere, to not give up, to be dogged in our academic pursuits. We're our own juke box heroes! We support each other in setbacks and cheer one another's accomplishments- great and small.
In short, we highly recommend to other grad students to form writing groups of your own. At the very least, it will make writing more fun.
Good luck!
The Carrots and Sticks Writing Group
(Alicia, Carla, Chris, Rennie and Robin)
Monday, October 17
