Fall 2022 Academic Writer's Club

Academic Writing Club for CSU Graduate Students & Faculty

Could you use some structured time to write and receive feedback from colleagues? Do you wish you could graduate with some published academic writing under your belt? Do you have some academic writing that needs polishing to become publishable? If so, this writing club is for you!

Offered by the Writing Center and the Michael Schwartz Library, this writing club is meant to help students and faculty improve their academic writing productivity. Each week we will send a short video and provide resources and advice related to an academic writing topic, and we'll have a synchronous Zoom meeting to review the topic. At least 30 minutes of the meeting time will be set aside for quiet writing to keep you on track! This Fall 2022 semester the weekly 5-minute videos will concern content from two books: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott and Write No Matter What by Jolie Jensen. You don’t need to have read the books to participate, but they will guide our discussions.  Details on the books below.
 

Meetings will occur in Zoom
from 3 - 4pm on Wednesdays beginning August 31st and ending December 7th.

SIGN UP FORM

Filling out the sign-up form does not obligate you to participate or attend every meeting; it merely puts you on our reminder email list and provides access to the Zoom link each week. However, you will experience the biggest writing productivity boost if you attend Zoom meetings with us! If you participated in our writing club in previous semesters and would like to continue, please go ahead and fill out the form again so we know who to keep on our email list (thank you for continuing to join us!).

Please feel free to share with classmates or colleagues who would like to make some progress on publishing! 

Please note that this writing club will be especially useful to graduate students and faculty in the humanities or social sciences. Undergraduates who have some academic writing to develop into a published article are welcome to participate.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Call Number: PN147 .L315 1995

ISBN: 0385480016

Publication Date: 1995-09-01

From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author: An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. For a quarter century, more than a million readers--scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities--have been inspired by Anne Lamott's hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne's father--also a writer--in the iconic passage that gives the book its title:   "Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"

 

 

 

Write No Matter What by Joli Jensen

ISBN: 9780226461670

Publication Date: 2017-04-28

With growing academic responsibilities, family commitments, and inboxes, scholars are struggling to fulfill their writing goals. A finished book--or even steady journal articles--may seem like an impossible dream. But, as Joli Jensen proves, it really is possible to write happily and productively in academe. Jensen begins by busting the myth that universities are supportive writing environments.  She points out that academia, an arena dedicated to scholarship, offers pressures that actually prevent scholarly writing. She shows how to acknowledge these less-than-ideal conditions, and how to keep these circumstances from draining writing time and energy. Jensen introduces tools and techniques that encourage frequent, low-stress writing. She points out common ways writers stall and offers workarounds that maintain productivity. Her focus is not on content, but on how to overcome whatever stands in the way of academic writing. Write No Matter What draws on popular and scholarly insights into the writing process and stems from Jensen's experience designing and directing a faculty writing program. With more than three decades as an academic writer, Jensen knows what really helps and hinders the scholarly writing process for scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Cut down the academic sword of Damocles, Jensen advises. Learn how to write often and effectively, without pressure or shame. With her encouragement, writers of all levels will find ways to create the writing support they need and deserve.