1804 Fund supports writing retreats to boost graduate students’ skills, confidence

Photographer: Maddie HordinskiGraduate students attend three-day writing retreats that feature tutors who advise them on the writing and the dissertation process.

When embarking on graduate school, a scholar faces many academic challenges – the greatest of which is completing a dissertation or thesis. Luckily for graduate students at OHIO, Associate Professor of English Talinn Phillips is here to help.

Phillips, who also directs Ohio University’s Graduate Writing and Research Center in the Graduate College, organizes Graduate Writing Retreats through the center to help guide students through their dissertation and thesis writing processes.

According to Phillips, more universities are providing writing retreats like these to support graduate student success.

“The word is getting out. The only issue is funding,” she said. However, that is not an issue for Phillips.

She was recently granted $15,000 from the 1804 Fund to lead writing retreats with professional tutors from the Graduate Writing and Research Center. The Ohio University Foundation Trustees approved more than $386,000 from the 1804 Fund for the 2017-2018 academic year in support of graduate and undergraduate learning projects.

Open to all graduate students writing theses, dissertations, journal articles and grants, the retreats provide a comprehensive view on writing, from providing guidance on each stage of the process, to the psychological and physical troubles that come with embarking on such a tremendous project.

In December, a three-day retreat focused on jump-starting the proposal process. It was attended by five doctoral students studying various disciplines and in various stages of their dissertations.

The retreat covered setting daily writing goals, citation management tools, personal well-being, and even how yoga can help combat those long hours sitting in a chair and typing.  

A three-person panel of tutors shared with the students some of their challenges in the dissertation process, as well as what they found got them through it.

“The hardest thing with writing for me is accepting that what I start is not the end product,” said tutor Hannah Osborn, a fifth-year graduate student in psychology currently writing her proposal.

Osborn overcame that by telling herself that it’s important to get something rough on the page first and then revising it. “It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time you do it,” she said.

Doctoral student Stephanie Clemons Thompson attended the retreat to learn tips she can apply to her project on the topic of institutional response to student activism. The retreat tutors provided her direction on how to keep the dissertation topic focused, despite some committee suggestions on what other avenues her study should explore.  

“I’m getting lots of suggestions on, ‘You can do this.’ Because I feel confident now in the direction of my research, I can say ‘Yeah that could be great for future research.’ I am able to defend that this is my study,” Clemons Thompson said.

Phillips explained that graduate writing, specifically a dissertation or thesis, is a different level of writing with which students need assistance.

“You're mastering a new discipline that has new writing conventions. Even if you're staying in the same field, the stakes for the writing are so much higher,” she said.

But half of the battle is psychological, she explained.

“It’s [thinking] that you never know enough – you shouldn't be here to begin with … and to keep plugging away, and to feel like, ‘I do have something to contribute here. If I keep working on it, I can finish it, and it will be something I can be proud of’ – helping writers through that is just as important as the writing itself,” Phillips said.

Visit the Graduate Writing and Research Center website for more information on the next Graduate Writing Retreat. 

Photographer: Maddie HordinskiDirector of Ohio University's Graduate Writing and Research Center, Talinn Phillips, leads the Graduate Writing Retreats supported by the 1804 Fund.