Writing Support Group FAQS and Starter Kit
Prepared by Dr. Genie N. Giaimo and Dr. Jesse Priest
Email Contact: Genie.N.Giaimo@Hofstra.edu & Jesse.Priest@hofstra.edu
Hofstra Writing Center Email writingcenter@hofstra.edu
Hofstra Writing Center Location: Mason Hall 102 Website: https://www.hofstra.edu/writing-center/
A famous Swedish proverb states that "shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow.” Whoever coined that saying was most likely talking about their experience working in a Writing Group!
A Writing Group is a way to share your ongoing writing process towards a set goal or deadline with others who may or may not be working on the same kind of project, but who are all committed to helping each other either through feedback, moral support, or shared accountability. Writing groups meet in person or online at a set frequency and time and place determined collectively by the group. While writing groups are popular among graduate students and postdoctoral professionals, they are also critical to faculty productivity and are frequently cited by guides to faculty writing as a key factor in faculty writing success.
Research has consistently shown that the stereotypical image of the “successful writer” as a solitary, lone individual is a misleading and inaccurate representation of the actual writing that gets produced. In most disciplines, writing is collaborative–from the research teams that collect and analyze data, to writing grants, to publishing findings.
Writing groups support a set of habits that lead to successful writing outcomes and writing productivity. They increase writing output, help participants to work through feedback and plan revisions, and they encourage regular engagement in writing through providing structure and accountability. Writing groups also help faculty writers to maintain motivation, develop confidence and cultivate emotional support.
Many faculty writing guides note that faculty struggle to form positive and sustainable habits around writing. Yet because the tenure and promotion system is in part guided by writing outputs like peer reviewed publications, monographs, grants, etc., developing these positive writing habits is critical to success in academia. Writing groups help faculty to carve out sustained, collaborative, intentional writing time on a weekly or bi-weekly basis which leads to improved writing outcomes.
At each group meeting, members will bring their works in progress and may read and provide feedback, or may simply talk together about their challenges and successes. That is to say, if you are nervous or hesitant to share your writing with others, you can still participate in a writing group– writing groups do not necessarily have to read each others’ work; some writing groups simply require members to “write in community” with one another.
Some groups will decide on a rotating order of sharing and receiving feedback, meaning maybe each group member reads one person’s work per week and provides feedback (to set realistic amounts of reading per meeting). Some groups will simply check-in with each other each week and set and revise their own goals as they go. The most important part of the writing group, regardless of format or expectations, is that each member of the group goes into it with comfort and mutual respect.
Many expert writers, even at the faculty level, cite the actual process of reading other scholars’ work and offering helpful feedback to be anxiety-inducing. Once we are out of graduate school, we often do not have the context to practice offering feedback in low-stakes, collegial and collaborative settings. This lack of direct engagement with our peers’ ongoing work can also translate to an uncertainty around how to assign and evaluate student writing in our courses.
Writing Groups help confront these challenges by creating a context where reading and helping our colleagues is the point of the group itself, rather than an incidental or indirect outcome of a larger task. By participating in a Writing Group, you will develop through practice your comfort and confidence in reading and providing helpful (even critical) feedback as an audience member of your peers’ work, and also learn more effective ways of receiving and incorporating feedback into your own writing– something we often don’t engage in professionally outside of the often-frustrating and typically more disconnected peer review process for publishing works.
The Writing Center is happy to participate in facilitating the smooth operation of your Writing Group. In addition to offering this starter kit to those writers interested in starting a group, we are available to help at multiple points during the process.
● As you begin to think about starting a writing group, you can meet with a WC representative for pre-group formation consultancy.
● Mid-semester group check-in to see how things are going.
● Revise group norms and expectations.
● Post-group reflection opportunity to learn about your needs and to better support others undertaking this activity.
● Specific tailored resources along the way.
To ensure the smooth functioning of the writing group, and to help everyone feel comfortable as the process continues, it is important to set expectations and rules for participation early in the process. It is much more difficult to change dysfunctional or challenging group dynamics once they have already been established than it is to begin the group identity in a way that prevents such challenges from arising.
The practice of establishing group expectations collaboratively at the beginning of the process is known as establishing group norms After creating the writing group through personal targeted invitations or large-scale invitations, the group sets out a shared understanding of what participation should and should not look like. It is important that each group member has input in and consents to the group norms. If a disagreement or uncertainty arises, the group may work together to revise the group norms. The goal of developing group norms is not to be punitive or restrictive towards members, but rather to encourage a shared level of participation and accountability.
Some things to consider when setting group norms include the following:
● What happens if a group member knows they need to miss a meeting ahead of time? How do they let the group know, and how much notice is expected?
● What happens if a group member misses a meeting without letting the group know ahead of time? Is there a baseline expectation of attendance before group membership may be reconsidered (suggestion is no less than two unannounced absences and to clearly communicate with all group members well before group membership is being questioned).
Timeline and expectations for submitting writing for feedback:
● How long before a meeting is a group member expected to submit their writing or work if it is being read for feedback for that meeting? That is, how much time before each meeting should members have to read each others’ work?
How to give and receive potentially critical or constructive feedback:
● Some groups may be more or less comfortable incorporating critical feedback into their conversations. Some individual group members may have different levels of comfort around receiving critical feedback. Individual members should feel free to be clear with expectations and levels of comfort regarding critical feedback. The group should also discuss ahead of time basic expectations for giving feedback.
● Each writing group should set for themselves individual responsibilities for maintaining the group, either on a rotating or consistent basis. It might not be feasible, for example, for one group member to always be the person to send out reminder text messages or emails the night before a meeting, and instead rotate the role of “group organizer” for each week.
● The role of “group organizer” might also include selecting a writing space for their week, collecting everyone’s writing submissions (or simply their writing logs) for that meeting, or this work can also be individually delegated to a “group collector” who oversees, for that week, the submission and sharing of each member’s progress that week.
● Regardless of how responsibilities are delegated, it is important that the entire onus of running and maintaining the group does not rely on one individual doing all of the legwork.
● While there is no requirement for group members to conduct official assessment (though the writing center can do this for you!), you might want to check-in from time-to-time on group members’ writing progress, group participation, and group maintenance. If most faculty cannot commit to in-person writing on a weekly basis, for example, the writing group structure and meeting modality can be evaluated and amended. If some writing group members have received multiple sets of feedback on their writing while others have received no feedback, it would make sense to prioritize the member who has not received feedback in the next meeting.
● There are other ways to evaluate writing group outcomes, such as asking group members to keep a running weekly tally of their writing productivity both in-group and during the period of group participation. At the end of the group, members can evaluate the difference in productivity pre-group compared to after joining a writing group. Such data can be reported to the writing center to track.
In tabletop roleplaying communities, “session zero” refers to the first meeting of the group as a group before the actual work of the group has begun. Session zero is when the group first meets to introduce themselves and their writing projects and goals, to establish their expectations for themselves and each other, and to set up the logistics for the meetings going forward.
Introductions
Meeting logistics (frequency, location, modality)
Establishing group norms
Writing project and goals (see “Goals and Milestones Worksheet” below)
Creating a log of writing projects/goals for the semester (see “Writing Project Tracker” below).
Setting up the first meeting
Additional Agenda items
Notes:
This initial document is meant to help you identify your writing goals and begin to share your project with your group. Filling out this worksheet will help you quantify your project in specific terms, identify your set goals, and help you to reflect on the kinds of feedback you’re looking for and resources you have available. Rather than being overwhelming, this kind of activity is designed to help you take stock of where you’re at and move forward with tangible plans.
Name:
Group Members:
Writing Project:
Length:
Deadline:
What kind of feedback are you looking for? This might include suggestions for content (i.e., things you might consider including), form/structure, tone/style, or no qualitative feedback at all and rather just accountability and progress check-ins.
What kinds of resources do you already have? (notes, drafts, other examples of what a “finished product” might look like, a writing space setup that works for you (and why):
What kinds of resources do you need to acquire? (research, snacks or nice lighting for your writing space, a babysitter, positive validation, etc.)
In the spaces below, set four specific milestones for your project. Each milestone should represent a date you will check in on your progress and update accordingly. An easy way to identify four milestones is to divide your project length into four smaller chunks (if your goal is 10,000 words, then each milestone could be 2500 words) and identify four dates before your deadline that you will check your progress at a set interval of time (i.e., each Friday before the due date). On the left-hand column, you will set your initial milestone goals that you identify at the beginning. When you reach the milestone date, fill in the “Revised” column to update and track your goals and progress.
Milestone #1 Goals Milestone #1 Revised
Date:
Length:
Notes:
Milestone #2 Goals Milestone #2 Revised
Date:
Length:
Notes:
Date:
Length:
Notes:
Milestone #3 Goals Milestone #3 Revised
Milestone #4 Goals Milestone #4 Revised
Date:
Length:
Notes:
Log #:_______________
Date: Time: Location:
Progress: What did you accomplish? What parts of the project did you work on?
Notes: What went well in this session? What would you like to replicate next time?
1. Open an excel file and add different writing projects, goals, start/end times, and next goals.
2. You can prioritize writing projects by due date, development stage, interest, etc.
3. After each writing period (does not have to be daily writing), update your tracker.
4. You can amend your goals if you do not accomplish them. If goals are consistently not met, this information can help to shape writing goal setting and reasonable writing progress expectations.
5. Continue to use this tracker for at least a couple of semesters to get a sense of writing habits, goal accomplishments, and planning work.
Adapted from Boice’s Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing.
Peer feedback in any context works best when it is intentionally structured and done with clear shared expectations at the outset of the process. Some feedback goals to keep in mind as a member of a writing group providing feedback for your peers:
● Useful: Useful feedback relates meaningfully to the topic of the project, method, study design, etc., and is often both actionable and specific. Useful feedback often includes sharing moments that the reader found to be working especially well and explaining why, so the author can consider what is successful in their writing.
● Thoughtful: Effective feedback is meant to be kind, compassionate, and assumes best intent on behalf of the author. Your peers are fellow developing writers and scholars who might not have the same expertise as you or may be used to looking at their work in isolation. Thoughtful feedback is meant to recognize the individual context of the author and offer support and encouragement from a position of understanding.
● Actionable: Actionable feedback offers concrete advice or suggestions for improvement, rather than relying on vague or abstract suggestions. Actionable feedback recognizes the context of the project and recognizes what is both within and outside the intended scope of the project. Actionable feedback often looks like asking for clarification or details at specific moments in the text. “Inactionable feedback,” in contrast, might look like suggesting the author to completely rewrite their project or change the fundamental nature of the work.
The attached worksheet follows this model to create a structure for the author to identify specific kinds of feedback they are looking for (and not looking for), and for the reader to structure their feedback to specific aspects of the text and driven by specific actionable suggestions.
Revised from TPR Journal’s “Guidelines for Reviewers”.
Author: I am primarily hoping to receive feedback on these areas:
Author: I am not currently looking for feedback on these areas (please do not include them in your commentary):
Reader’s feedback:
Place in the text
Additional feedback notes:
Actionable feedback
Research on writing has also shown that the physical space and time that we conduct our work is crucial on the outcome of that work. There are two primary ways our tangible, physical space can influence our production: one is that we are simply better able to think when we feel safe, comfortable, and motivated by our physical surroundings (which include all of the senses); and the other is that creating consistency with your workspace is a simple and effective way to build habits (our minds will begin to associate certain spaces with specific kinds of activity over time).
Prompts about the physical and emotional space where you can write (adapted from Helen Sword’s Air & Light & Time & Space).
● What does your ideal writing space look and feel like?
● How do you plan to redesign your current writing space(s) to achieve those ideals?
● What daily rituals might help you enter and leave your writing space each day, psychologically as well as physically? (What will you bring in? What will you leave out?)
● Have you found a metaphor that encapsulates the essence, energy, and mystery of your writing space?
Respond to the prompts below or come up with your own variations to write about the role of space in your writing life.
● Describe or draw your current writing space. How does it compare with other spaces you have worked in? What sensory details do you notice in your space?
● Describe or draw a space from your past that you associate with pleasurable, productive writing.
● Describe or draw a variety of spaces where you have written. What do they have in common? How do they differ?
● What do you need (e.g., supplies, set-up, technology, etc.) to have a productive writing space?
● “Less Angst and More Fun: Writing Strategies and Writing Groups for Scholarship”: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12525799/
● Writing Group Starter Kit – The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
● “How to become a productive academic writer?” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11601065/
● “How to be a More Productive Writer”: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/10/productive-writer
● “Become a Productive Academic Writer”: https://researchmethodscommunity.sagepub.com/blog/becoming-productive-acad emic-writer
● “The Best Practices for Writing Productivity”: https://writingcenter.uci.edu/2024/04/25/the-best-practices-for-writing-productivity /
● “Faculty Writing Groups for Writing Center Professionals: Rethinking Scholarly Productivity”: https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/0ec2d965-b5b5-41b c-8ecf-3a74b4afeae4/content
● “Productive Writing Habits for Faculty and Researchers”: https://sph.umich.edu/news/2023posts/get-in-the-write-mind-shares-productive-w riting-habits-for-faculty-and-researchers.html
● Becoming an Academic Writer: https://collegepublishing.sagepub.com/products/becoming-an-academic-writer-3266315
● Stylish Academic Writing: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674064485
● How to Write a lot: https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4441031
● Writing With Pleasure: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691191775/writing-with-pleasur e?srsltid=AfmBOoqAgKf3HItMBPNGea0rXrI58fMXwD6cfZrOHWHEd7aCqD_jug Pw
● Air & Light & Time & Space: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674737709