Training and Professional Development

  • Seminars in Academic Writing for Graduate Students

    Graduate Seminars In Academic Writing Coming Back This Fall | These Are Free 

    Apply by August 22, 2014 for Full Consideration for the First Fall Session

    During the 2014-15 school year, the University Writing Center will offer no-cost seminars in academic writing for UConn graduate students. The course will adopt neither a lecture nor a skills-and-drills format; instead, it will be an interactive workshop. The instructor will deliver some lessons but most sessions will focus on peer-reviewing each participant's work in progress. To join, you must be open to sharing your writing and to discussing the drafts of others.

    Learning to write well takes time, commitment, and experience, and while no single course can do the job alone, this 5-week seminar will give participants guided practice in becoming more skilled writers of research and scholarship. Students must come with a working project (for example, a dissertation chapter, journal article, grant proposal, or course paper).

    These seminars, which take place on the Storrs campus, do not carry UConn academic credit, nor are they graded. We simply aim to help graduate students improve their writing in ways that will serve them well in their academic careers.

    During the Fall 2014 semester, the seminar will be offered twice:

    o First Session: September 10th - October 8th, Wednesdays, 3 - 6 pm

    o Second Session: October 21st - November 18th, Tuesdays, 1 - 4 pm (an announcement to apply for the second session will be sent out in late September/early October)

    A third seminar will be offered in Jan/Feb 2015.

     

    Important Details About the Seminar:

    • Applicants must be full-time, degree-seeking UConn graduate students.  International grad students are welcome
    • Participants are expected to commit 3 additional hours per week (outside of the meeting time) to complete assignments and to peer-review the drafts of others
    • Submission of a working draft (at least 5 double-spaced pages) is required prior to the beginning of the session
    • Submission of a $100 deposit check is required, but it will be returned upon satisfactory completion of the seminar. If you attend and participate actively, you get your deposit back! The deposit is a way for us to know that you are serious about the seminar, as well as a way for participants to motivate themselves to persist through 5 weeks of writing and responding.

    • For full consideration, please submit your application byAugust 22nd
    • Applications submitted after that date will be considered if spaces are available. 
    • Course enrollment is limited to 25 students per session. If we receive more applications than there are seats available (which is likely), we will make decisions about enrollment based on seniority, the urgency of the proposed project, the degree of fit between the course and the applicant’s writing project, the application submission date, and the motivation of the applicant. We expect to inform applicants about acceptances and session assignments in early September.
    • Apply online (using your UConn email address when you fill out the form): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/126DHDQuPoiLmU3BnXEeG7TB-7zF8IMCYtqGVd9Ft7lY/viewform?usp=send_form
    • If you have questions about the seminar, please contact us at gradwritinguconn@gmail.com

    These seminars are made possible through funding from the Graduate School and the University Writing Center. Other opportunities for graduate writing support include individualized tutorials at the Writing Center, Graduate Writing Retreats, and Dissertation Boot Camps. For details on graduate writing support, please visit our website: http://writingcenter.uconn.edu/gradsupport.php

    For more information, contact: Cheryl at gradwritinguconn@gmail.com