Writing Retreats! 

Writing retreats for PhD students and other researchers

Practical information

Come to Groningen's Hogeland and treat yourself to a writing retreat! This will give an enormous 'boost' to text production. You will spend four or five days working with a group under the guidance of professionals. There is time and space for lots of thinking, writing and working, for lots of talking and learning and for relaxation.

Cost indication: standard programme 4 days € 375 (4x lunch; 3x dinner); 5 days € 475. (5x lunch and 4x dinner). Including tea, coffee, soft drinks, etc., guidance and the book Effective Strategies for Academic Writing (Eng).

What makes such a writing week effective?

•     There is concentration; fleeing is out of the question (and you've turned on your absence detector;-)
•     You receive guidance in segmenting the writing process
•     You receive guidance in carrying out various sub-steps: strategies for better orientation, more effective planning, faster writing and more focused revision.
•     You will receive a book in which all this is described in detail (Effective Strategies for Academic Writing or the Dutch version: Handboek Academisch Schrijven).
•     Collaboration: in discussion, you learn from each other. Explaining to others what you want to write down helps enormously and giving feedback is extremely instructive.
•     A new environment and other people give a fresh perspective on research and writing.

Content

We will spend time on:

Effective writing, for example:

• An effective writing process: what works and what does not work for you? In search of an effective approach.
• Analysis of the 'rhetorical situation': Setting the Scene. Where do you want to publish? What are the requirements? Preconditions? From the journal and from your working environment.
• How do you communicate more effectively with your supervisor?
• Picturing Your Research: using a model by Heinze Oost, you map out the what, how and why of your research.
• Already ready for a trash version? Start writing!
• How do you make an outline of the paper that really gives you a grip on the writing?
• How to get a first version on paper at high speed (keep writing!)
• How can you revise your text systematically?
• What are effective strategies for revising content and structure?
• What do you pay attention to when revising style?

Effective communication with your supervisor/s

If there is sufficient interest, we can invite Judith Schut. Judith is a coach and training actor. She works with, for example, people from the police, the Dutch Railway and  psychiatry, but will mainly use her experience as a training actor in courses for PhD-supervisors.

• With Judith you could practice conversations with your supervisor/s. Maybe you are not so happy with the way they are going? How do you get a better grip on communication, how do you come across, how can you respond to your supervisor's behaviour?