Werkstatt-Seminar: Academic Paper Writing mit Emma Witkowski

Write Write Baby: Academic Writing Workshop (for Champions)

5th – 6th January, 2017
Arthur-Woll-Haus | University of Siegen | Room AE-B 107
11.00 – 17.00h

Hosted by Senior Lecturer and PostDoc Emma Witkowski
This is a workshop about how you „do writing“. It’s about sharing your own good practices and bad habits involved in putting words on paper. First-time academic authors and more experienced writers are invited to share texts as well as processes of something they’ve written or are in the course of writing. That something might be a critical blog post, a dissertation chapter, a conference abstract, a journal article, a grant, or zero draft of a complete manuscript.
The goals of this workshop are to engage in constructive conversations about writing, reviewing, and editing practices, and to get some words, as well as new techniques, on paper.

Workshop overview

  • Piece of research

    Please bring a piece of research that you are working on, or anything you are thinking about (a problem, a theme, a question, a photo, a sensation) that might be a contribution to knowledge within your subject area.

  • Critical dialouges

    All participants can expect to engage in critical dialogues about academic writing, while drafting a piece of writing for publication which receives the benefit of peer review and workshop feedback and support.

  • Workshop agenda

    The workshop agenda will move between topical discussions and writing/editing/feedback sessions. Topics on the agenda include: Reflecting on your writing, Shut-up & write/pomodoro/freewriting sessions, storyboard/notecard writing, digital methods (for writing), group editing, the give/take of reviews and feedback, collaborative work, first publication stories.

  • New collaborative writing initiatives

    New (and existing) collaborative writing initiatives are encouraged! This is a safe space to try to write a small piece with someone whose work you’re interested in (and to get a feel for your joint writing/editing/reviewing rhythms). Ask them – they might say yes!

  • "Lessons from the field"

    A guest panel will join us on the 5th of January. The researcher collective is currently working on a major grant together and will host a Skype panel followed by Q&A on writing collectively, and at a distance (from Denmark, Poland, Australia, Finland and Ireland), to a deadline. (Set for January 5th).

  • Reading packet

    A small reading packet will be distributed to participants by December 23rd.


Workshop outcomes

  • Participants will have applied a range of writing techniques and strategies

  • Write a new or a new version of a piece of writing towards publication

  • Effectively integrate feedback and respond to review reports

  • Contribute with constructive feedback to peers on their writing

We all have writing practices to share, and to invoke Howard Becker, there’s always a couple more “Tricks of the Trade” to collect and help us along the way. Let’s learn from one another and produce something during our time together.

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