CPCD-WR-15 - Professional Writing: A Workshop Series for Graduate Students
Course Description
Series Description: Writing in graduate school is challenging on many levels – but learning some key approaches and skills can make it easier. This series of online workshops focuses on aspects of writing that graduate students most often struggle with and want to get better at. We’ll start out with the basics of good writing and then help you develop good habits, pick up some helpful tricks, and understand the structure, purpose, and audience of many kinds of writing you need to do as a graduate student (from email to class papers, research proposals, and of course your thesis or dissertation). This workshop will take place online.
Attendance options: You may choose to attend just one or two of the sessions as standalone experiences, OR you can leverage the semester-long series to focus on your single most important writing project. If you choose the second route, you will receive personalized coaching and feedback in Session #4 (only open to people who participate in #1 and #2). All current and potential applicants for STAF (Summer Teaching Assistant Fellowships) and DYF (Dissertation Year Fellowships) are welcome to Session #3, regardless of other participation. All workshops are synchronous online (3-4:30 pm on designated dates). They will not be available as recordings.
Workshop #1 Sept. 19: Becoming a Stronger Writer?
Writing expectations in graduate school often go beyond what you were taught in college. If you come from a different country or culture, the discrepancies between writing in English and in another language can add to the challenge. In this session, we will cover the most important writing rules to help you build a strong foundation for all of your graduate school writing tasks.
Workshop #2 Oct. 17: Accountability, writing tips, and other helpful strategies
Writing doesn't come naturally to most people. Successful writers use many practices to stay productive and improve their writing. In this session, you will learn best practices to help you get organized, develop and improve your writing skills, always keep writing, and build a community of peers to keep you accountable. We will emphasize resources that are especially useful for writers who are not present on campus, such as shared spreadsheets, email check-ins, and online writing groups.
Workshop #3 Nov. 14: Writing effective DYF and STAF proposals
The UNH Graduate School offers partial summer support for TAs (Summer Teaching Assistant Fellowships), and dissertation-year support (Dissertation Year Fellowships) for doctoral students. This workshop will help you prepare successful applications for these fellowships by focusing on how to write a proposal that explains your research to people outside your field. It will also be good practice in writing a funding application that reflects the award criteria, which increases your chance of success.
Workshop #4 Dec. 12: Focus on your current writing project/personalized coaching
This session is open only to students who participated in this year's series' first and second workshops.
Every writing project has unique requirements. In this session, you will learn how to apply basic principles (such as considering audience, context, and goals) to whatever you are working on and receive personal feedback and guidance on your top-priority writing project.
Registration for this workshop will open on October 21st.