Academic writing retreat for School of Sport, Health and Social Sciences, Southampton Solent University

1. From guilty pleasure to
legitimate activity:
the structured writing retreat
@solentlearning
@tansyjtweets

2. Workshop outline
1. Why a writing retreat
2. Why write? Why publish? Why research?
3. Writing for academic journals
4. Mapping your writing identity
5. Academic writing strategies.
6. Improving the quality of your writing

3. Why a writing retreat
•Time and place for concentrated writing
•Imaginative space
•Social space
•Writing as community of practice

4. Academic writing can be exhilarating, or quietly pleasurable,
or plain hard work. In common with our students, it is
something we – academics – must do, usually alone.
Sometimes we may feel ourselves resisting the imperative to
write; at other times we may experience the frustration of
planning to write yet never quite getting there. So much
seems to come between us and our writing.
(Grant 2006, 483)

5. Why write? Why publish?
1. This is what we do.
2. Thinking happens when we write.
3. It vivifies our teaching; it makes it cutting edge.
4. It enables us to share our discoveries.
5. ‘Mastery’ comes out of the furnace of writing.
6. Writing arises from our research.

6. Forms of systematic inquiry

7. Why do research?
Learning
1) Own learning
2) Colleagues’ learning
3) Students’ learning
4) Contributing to knowledge field – reader’s learning
5) Something useful for society.
Employment
Getting and keeping a job, ensuring a career – promotion
and future mobility

8. Journals are #1 currency

10. The Which Guide to HE Journals

11. Activity 1
What makes a good journal article?

12. Why articles don’t get published
(Harland 2015)
Problems in rank order Explanation
1. Research article inconsequential Adds little; doesn’t develop new ideas;
implications weak, unlikely others will
learn from it
2. Lack of integration Does not engage critically with what is out
there, makes poor use of theory, doesn’t
contribute to theory
3. Poor use of evidence There is big gaps between claims and
evidence
4. Structure Reads like a literature review of a chapter
5. Grammar/meaning Expression is poor.

13. Activity 2
List what should be included in the abstract of
a journal article

14. Abstract essentials
1. What the article is about
2. Why this is important
3. Methods
4. Findings
5. Implications for theory/practice

15. Mapping your writing identity

16. Diagnostic Exercise: Mapping the BASE
Behavioural habits: your disciplines
Artisanal habits: your craft
Social habits: your collaboration
Emotional habits: your feelings
about writing

17. Behavioural habits

18. Binge or daily grind…

19. The evidence is compelling
The law of delay: that which can be
delayed, will be
The priority principle: that which can
be delayed, need not be.
Writers who write every day produce
3 x as much as writers who wait for
summer

20. Writing strategies
1. Momentum – always write
2. Perfectionism - shut down the censor, free write?
3. Perfectionism - do not try out drafts on journal referees
4. Good writing is difficult – accept this proposition
5. Elaborate rituals are unhealthy
6. Resilience and realism in the face of high rejection rates

21. Artisanal habits:
improving the craft of writing

22. Writing is learnt

23. Impressing other academics with your erudition
OR
Communicating?
Write for your mum

24. 1. TITLE: Does the book or article have an interesting, concrete title?
2. OPENING: Engaging opening paragraph?
3. STORY: Does the book or article tell a story?
4. JARGON: Is the book or article relatively jargon-free?
5. VOICE: Does the author write with an individualistic voice?
6. INTERDISCIPLINARITY: Evidence of scholarly relationships outside
the author’s own field?
7. EXAMPLES: Concrete examples, illustration, anecdotes,
metaphors?
8. ELEGANCE AND CRAFT: Sentences carefully and elegantly crafted?
9. VERBAL FITNESS: Clear sentences that favour active verbs &
concrete nouns
10. CREATIVITY, ENGAGEMENT, HUMOUR: Conveys creativity,
imagination, originality; passion, commitment, personal
engagement; a sense of humour?
‘Best dressed’ list (Helen Sword)

25. Getting the right title takes time…
Student assessment load in research and teaching intensive
institutions
Light or heavy burdens? Implications of student assessment
load in research and teaching-intensive universities
Beasts of burden? An analysis of student assessment load in
research and teaching-intensive universities
Struggling and juggling: A comparative analysis of student
assessment loads

26. Communicate Concreteness
Craft Choice
Creative Courage
Stylish Academic Writing: Helen Sword

27. The Writer’s Diet
Let’s Take the Test!
http://writersdiet.com/?page_id=4

28. This paper describes a process of analysis and the development of representational
strategies in a narrative study. It takes the reader through the often hidden steps
involved in doing research, and unveils some of the problematics of narrative and
voice. Within the context of rural post-Apartheid South Africa, the researchers were
positioned as outsiders, bordercrossing into the lives of the researched, in the
name of articulating their voices. The ethical dilemmas of this kind of research are
examined, as is the perspective that the researcher is positioned, not as an
objective, all-seeing eye, but as a re-presenter from 'somewhere'. The heart of the
paper analyses the development of different strategies of analysis, including poetry
and various mapping, graphic and matrix techniques. Representational models are
developed progressively, in response to the dilemmas and complexities of re-telling
'a' story, and the particular challenge of capturing the contradictory, partial and
fluid nature of each teacher's story. The research process culminates in a model
which allows for a reading of each narrative as complex, nuanced and intrinsically
ambivalent. Against the backdrop of a wider study of teacher narratives (on which
this paper is based) and the policy context of education, some conclusions about
the implications of narrative study for teacher development in South Africa are
drawn.
Jessop, T. and Penny, A. 1999. A story behind a story: Developing strategies for
making sense of teacher narratives. International Journal of Social Research
Methodology 2 (3). 213-230.

29. Evidence from 73 programmes in 14 U.K universities sheds light on the typical
student experience of assessment over a three-year undergraduate degree. A
previous small-scale study in three universities characterised programme
assessment environments using a similar method. The current study analyses data
about assessment patterns using descriptive statistical methods, drawing on a
large sample in a wider range of universities than the original study. Findings
demonstrate a wide range of practice across programmes: from 12 summative
assessments on one programme to 227 on another; from 87% by examination to
none on others. While variations cast doubt on the comparability of U.K degrees,
programme assessment patterns are complex. Further analysis distinguishes
common assessment patterns across the sample. Typically, students encounter
eight times as much summative as formative assessment, a dozen different types
of assessment, more than three quarters by coursework. The presence of high
summative and low formative assessment diets is likely to compound students’
grade orientation, reinforcing narrow and instrumental approaches to learning.
High varieties of assessment are probable contributors to student confusion about
goals and standards. Making systematic headway to improve student learning from
assessment requires a programmatic and evidence-led approach to design,
characterised by dialogue and social practice.
Jessop, T and Tomas, C. 2016. The implications of programme assessment patterns
for student learning, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. Published
online 2 August 2016.

30. How to improve your writing
• Read it aloud
• Read books on how to improve writing (Becker;
Sword; Murray)
• Draft. Edit. Redraft. Edit. Redraft. Persevere.
• Read articles in target journal
• Get trusty critical friends to read your work

31. Social habits
…vacating the solitude of the garret and moving
into the house of many rooms
Virginia Woolf (1942) Professions for women

32. It helps to join a community of writers
• Writing groups
• Critical friends
• Journal reviewing
• Mentoring
• Writing retreats

33. Emotional habits
• Good feelings from spending time doing it rather
than feeling guilty about not doing it
• Create space: deploy the priority principle
• Success builds confidence, confidence builds feel
good factor
• Being part of a community of writers, sharing
struggles and joys

34. Final thoughts
• Writing is an important part of an academic’s job
• Writing is a difficult skill to master
• Writing lifts the quality of our thinking and vivifies
our teaching
• Learning to write is an unfinished project

35. Planning your writing:
one bite at a time

36. References
Becker, H. (2007) Writing for Social Scientists. Chicago. University of Chicago
Press.
Boice, R. (1990) Professors as Writers: A self-help guide to productive writing.
Oklahoma. New Forum.
Grant, B. (2006) Writing in the company of other women: exceeding the
boundaries, Studies in Higher Education, 31:4, 483-495.
Harland, A. (2015) Writing for Publication Workshop, University of Winchester.
Hefce (2016) Publication patterns in Research underpinning impact in REF
2014.
Jessop and Penny (1999) A story behind a story: Developing strategies for
making sense of teacher narratives. International Journal of Social Research
Methodology. 2:3. 213-230.
Richardson, L. (1990) Writing Strategies: reaching diverse audiences. Thousand
Oaks. California. Sage.
Sword, H. (2017) Air & Light & Time & Space: How successful academics write.
Cambridge MA. Harvard University Press.
Sword, H. (2013) Stylish Academic Writing. Cambridge. MA. Harvard University
Press.
Sword, H. (2013) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQsRvAVSVeM
Sword, H. (2009) Writing higher education differently: a manifesto on style,
Studies in Higher Education, 34:3, 319-336.