Academic Writing Club for CSU Graduate Students & Faculty

Faculty & Grad Students:

• 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 2021 semester the weekly 5-minute videos will concern a chapter from the book Thinking Like Your Editor by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunato, detailed below and available from the Michael Schwartz Library.

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. 

Meetings will occur in Zoom
from 3:00 - 4:00pm on Thursdays
beginning September 2 and ending December 16th.
 

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!

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

Thinking Like Your Editor by Susan Rabiner; Alfred Fortunato

ISBN: 0393038920

Publication Date: 2002-02-17

Over 50,000 books are published in America each year, the vast majority nonfiction. Even so, many writers are stymied in getting their books published, never mind gaining significant attention for their ideas--and substantial sales. This is the book editors have been recommending to would-be authors. Filled with trade secrets, Thinking Like Your Editor explains:* why every proposal should ask and answer five key questions;* how to tailor academic writing to a general reader, without losing ideas or dumbing down your work;* how to write a proposal that editors cannot ignore;* why the most important chapter is your introduction;* why "simple structure, complex ideas" is the mantra for creating serious nonfiction;* why smart nonfiction editors regularly reject great writing but find new arguments irresistible. Whatever the topic, from history to business, science to philosophy, law, or gender studies, this book is vital to every serious nonfiction writer.