Schrijfweek / Writing Retreats! For PhD candidates and other researchers

Writing Retreats! 


2024: New options for 4 or 5-day writing retreats

  • Thursday 2nd of May till Sinday 5th or Monday 6th of May
  • To be scheduled from midst July: writing weekends (Friday - Sunday). Please send me an email if you are interested.

For more information or registration, please, send a message via "contact" or directly to academischschrijven@dds.nl. Also if you are looking for other forms or moments of guidance.


 

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?

Auteur van Handboek Academisch Schrijven (2011)
en Effective Strategies for Academic Writing (2017)