During the academic year, the Writing Center offers weekly in-person writing groups on the fifth floor of the Sciences Library (SciLi). Like the week-long dissertation retreat, the weekly writing groups offer space, time, and encouragement to make progress on their writing projects in the company of other writers. All current graduate students (including master’s, PhD, and medical students) are welcome to join.

In collaboration with the Graduate School, the Writing Center offers week-long dissertation writing retreats in January and July. The retreat provides participants with space, time, and encouragement to make progress on their doctoral dissertations in the company of other writers. Space is limited; registration is required. Registration will be announced on Today@Brown and in the Sheridan Center newsletter.

Selected quotes from dissertation retreat participants:

Meeting across the Fall and Spring semesters, the interdisciplinary Graduate Writing Collective helps graduate students prepare an article manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The program explores key academic writing strategies including time management, clarifying arguments, making claims for significance, identifying appropriate journals for submission, working with editors, and writing query letters. Because the focus of this collective is revision, participants should have at least a nearly-full draft of a journal manuscript (or a course paper, conference paper, or dissertation chapter that can be revised into a journal manuscript) in hand by the first meeting. With the support of a writing community, participants will revise their draft into a full journal manuscript and submit it for publication.

Space is limited; participants must apply to join the cohort each September. Applicants will be asked to commit to attending at least 10 of 12 meetings across the Fall/Spring semesters.

The 14-Day Writing Challenge, held once per semester, is a virtual accountability group that helps writers meet their writing goals by providing community support and accountability. Participants will be asked to share their writing goals with other participants, do their best to write for at least 30 minutes per day during the challenge, post their progress at the end of each daily writing session (participants pick their own writing session times), and cheer on other participants as they try to meet their writing goals. Registration is announced on Today@Brown and in the Sheridan Center newsletter.

The Writing Associates are a community of graduate students dedicated to improving their writing pedagogy and to helping support writers at Brown. Associates facilitate virtual and in-person one-on-one meetings with writers from various disciplines and at various academic levels (including pre-college, undergraduate, and graduate students as well as alumni and staff) during 50-minute pre-scheduled appointments at the Writing Center. In addition to supporting writers at Brown, the Writing Associates program is designed to help associates develop their writing pedagogy and enhance their teaching portfolio.

Writing Associates work one or two 3-hour shifts per week, and commit to attending one professional development meeting per month. Additionally, associates can opt to design and facilitate writing-related workshops for courses at Brown. All labor for the position is compensated at $25.00/hour. When available, applications will be announced on Today@Brown, in the Sheridan Center newsletter, and on the Sheridan Center student jobs page. Email Dr. Charlie Carroll with questions about the writing associate position.