The Scholarly Writing Program (SWP) supports faculty as they write for publication and, by extension, for promotion and tenure. We aim to promote and share strong writing practices and build a community of writers on campus.
Schools and programs across the Bloomington campus partner with us to provide financial support and/or space for our groups.
Reach out to us.
Laura Plummer
Director
The Scholarly Writing Program offers several services for IU Bloomington faculty:
Our semester-long Faculty Writing Groups offer group accountability and support for faculty and other full-time academic appointees who would like to prioritize their own writing. You need to apply to be part of these groups.
Applications are due by August 1 for the fall semester and December 1 for the spring semester. To apply, click here for the application form.
We arrange peer-review groups—by request—for interested faculty members. Past groups have included faculty working on tenure and promotion statements, and faculty interested in receiving feedback on scholarly work from peers outside their disciplines.
Each spring, we provide one-on-one consultations on tenure and promotion personal statements (research, teaching, and service sections). Contact Laura Plummer at lplummer@indiana.edu to make an appointment.
Time permitting, we provide one-on-one feedback to Faculty Writing Group participants on any piece of writing related to their IU appointment, such as scholarly books/chapters, articles, and grant applications.
VPFAA and the Scholarly Writing Program cosponsor writing-related events each academic year. These events include workshops by experts in the field of scholarly writing and productivity (with OVPR), The OpEd Project (with CAHI), and seasonal multiday writing retreats.
Each May, we host a two-day retreat to help jump-start summer writing projects.
Annual writing retreat at Bradford Woods
The Faculty Writing Groups (FWGs) are founded on two basic principles:
These strategies can be especially difficult to implement without some external structure and support. In order to help you integrate these skills into your writing practice, we provide weekly writing-based workshops that focus on the needs of faculty writing throughout the disciplines. These are not review groups (focused on sharing work and improving prose), but accountability groups aimed at supporting process, community, and productivity.
Each three-hour writing group meeting is divided in the following way:
Group discussion (approximately 30 minutes): This discussion will be facilitated by a faculty co-facilitator and/or a Scholarly Writing Program staff member and will focus on writing and motivational strategies. Each member of the group is expected to share their progress since the last meeting and set goals for structured writing time.
Some common topics for full-group discussion include:
Structured writing time (remaining two-plus hours): All members of the group will spend the remaining time in the session working on their individual projects, and will report their progress at the end of the session.
Because of the writing time I had in my FWG, I got more writing done this semester than I would have without participating in a group.
IU Bloomington faculty participant
Participants will:
Group facilitators will:
FWGs begin the second week of both the fall and spring semester and run through the last week of classes.
Each meeting lasts three hours.
FWGs are offered at 15–20 different times throughout the week. Participants sign up for a specific group time and place for the entire semester.
Locations vary each semester but are spread across campus.
Applications are due by August 1 for fall semester and December 1 for spring semester.
FWGs are open to all those with full-time faculty appointments on the IU Bloomington campus. Priority is given to tenure-track faculty, but lecturers other than non-tenure ranks are welcome.
Yes, the majority of FWGs are writing groups for women.
An application is required for each semester. Once applications have been collected and reviewed, those eligible to join a group will be invited to a Canvas site where they can sign up for specific group time slots.
To apply, go to the application form.
FWGs are diverse—members come from across the disciplines and faculty ranks. There are no cohort-based groups, aside for the women-only writing groups.
Yes. Current FWD members are welcome to drop in Fridays, 9 a.m.–12 p.m. during the regular semester in the Social Sciences Research Commons (Woodburn Hall 200).
Come prepared to describe one of your current writing projects in two minutes, and be open to new ideas and strategies for managing your writing time.
Note: Bring your own laptop to each meeting. Computers are not provided.
