Faculty Writing Groups

The Scholarly Writing Program’s largest and longest-standing offering are the Faculty Writing Groups. We offer between 20 and 25 groups of 12-17 writers each semester; they meet weekly while classes are in session for three hours, offering group accountability and support for full-time academic appointees seeking to prioritize their writing. All prospective participants must apply to join a group.

Applications are due by August 1 for the fall semester and November 1 for the spring semester.

To apply, click here for the application form.

The Faculty Writing Groups (FWGs) are founded on two basic principles:

1. Daily writing produces better quality work while also minimizing stress.
2. Group accountability helps reinforce motivation.

These strategies can be especially difficult to implement without some external structure and support. To help you integrate these skills into your writing practice, we provide weekly writing-based sessions that focus on the needs of faculty writing across disciplines. These are accountability groups in which faculty work together in a shared space with the aims of supporting process, community, and productivity.

Structure of the groups

1. Each three-hour writing group begins with group discussion (approximately 25-30 minutes) facilitated by a faculty co-facilitator and/or a Scholarly Writing Program staff member. Discussion topics focus on professional, research and writing-related issues and strategies. Each member of the group is expected to share their progress since the last meeting and set goals for structured writing time.
2. Structured writing time (two-plus hours). Participants spend most of the remaining time in the session working on their individual projects.
3. Each group session closes with a debrief (10 minutes) in which members report their progress and goals for the next week.

Some common topics for full-group discussion include:

• Devising a routine for writing and research 
• Productive goal-setting strategies
• Types of revision and feedback (structural, surface-level)
• Balancing teaching/writing/service
• Strategies for dealing with rejected projects or reviewers’ comments

Expectations for participants and facilitators:

• Commit to regular attendance for the semester. Your presence reinforces others’ accountability—we all show up because others expect us to. Writing groups are in high demand. Participants who are continually absent will not be selected to continue in future semesters.
• Arrive on time on each week. Late arrivals are disruptive and undermine others’ motivation.
• Keep a record of goals and progress.
• Provide feedback about the progress.