The Graduate Writers' Workspace is a protected time and space to work on your long-term writing projects, which often get edged out by our short-term responsibilities and due dates. By attending, you are permitting yourself time during your busy week to work on these projects that feel so distant but which are nevertheless a big priority. It is also a way to write in the company of other writers to combat the isolation that often comes with writing theses or dissertations and to provide a little social accountability. The Workspace also offers a structured, guided practice of time management skills like short-term goal setting and the Pomodoro method — invaluable to continued progress.
Each three-hour Graduate Writers Workspace, which is facilitated by a Writing Center staff member, is made up of two writing sessions, each 1-1/2 hours long. During the first and last 10 minutes of each session, writers share their goals, progress and challenges with other writers.
You can attend both or just one of the sessions, and there are optional midway breaks built into the structure of each session.
No. You will simply be working individually on your own work and sharing your goals and progress with the group. For individualized feedback on your writing, you can make an appointment at the Writing Center.
Yes! Each Workspace is comprised of two sessions lasting 1-1/2 hours. If you cannot make it to the first session, we recommend coming during the midway point between sessions A and B.
This is a time and space to put your writing and research first. Hence, we recommend that you use the time for long-term writing projects that have distant or nebulous deadlines. This can include smaller projects like application materials for jobs or grants or even term papers for a graduate class. These Workspaces aim to provide a refuge from emails, small assignments, teaching TA/CA/RA work, and other responsibilities that have a habit of getting in the way of our big or distant writing projects.
Most of our attendees are graduate students from GSAS, IBS and the Heller School working on dissertations and theses at various stages (just getting started all the way through to final edits). Others are working on articles they are submitting for publication, graduate term papers, fellowship applications, prospectuses and more.
At this time, the Workspaces are designed for graduate students. If you are a Brandeis undergraduate, faculty, or staff member interested in attending, please email the Writing Center at writingcenter@brandeis.edu.
To get the most benefit from the Workspaces, we recommend attending regularly, though it is not a requirement. To make good progress on your writing, we recommend setting time aside for writing each week, and signing up for a Workspace regularly is a good way to do that.
Each week's Workspace is listed on the Writing Center Events page along with our other workshops.
Research, reading, data collection, brainstorming, etc., are all parts of the writing process. So no, you don't actually have to be just drafting or editing to participate in a Workspace. However, since drafting and editing are often the tasks we dread or procrastinate the most, we do recommend using this time to write whenever possible.
Feel free to reach out to us at writingcenter@brandeis.edu!