Writing Retreat October 2021

4-5th October 2021
Hotel Spreeblick, Lübben, Brandenburg

The two day retreat was divided into a workshop/input day one and a putting into practice/writing day two. Day one started with a peek into the writing lab as a way to create space where implicit knowledge about practices can be shared, discussed and made explicit. More experienced scholars (professors, postdocs) were asked to define their “writing type” and depending on their type were assigned a station. Groups of doctoral researchers changed stations every 20 minutes discussing the different ways of approaching a big project and getting from point A to point B. At the end stations that seemed to suit individual writing types best were chosen by particpants.

Day one also encompassed a writing challenge during which participants challenged themselves to get a project theses draft written within a short amount of time. The challenge invited everyone to think about their projects in its entirety by focusing on the project’s main arguments in the form of thesis statements. The drafts were feedbacked in small groups.

Day two was divided up into writing sprint time-slots of 2 ½ hours in total which were structured by means of the Pomordoro technique with a focus on maximizing word count instead of worrying about editing or thinking about what happens next. Based on findings in research done into academic writing practices, writing tends to be more productive when writers devote designated time slots to their work, and when they feel that they are supported by a small network of other writers. With the sprint-time slots on day two these findings were put into practice and a feedback session of one hour in small groups of 3 participants (2 fellows + 1 supervisor/postdoc) allowed for constructive and convivial feedback of work in progress.