You are invited to join a weekly online writing group for early-career professors, postdocs, graduate students, and others writing academic- and research-adjacent work. I am calling this group Writing in Good Company.
I have designed this group to support especially women, people of color, first-generation Americans, and first-generation postgraduate students, who frequently do not receive adequate cultural and institutional support for their careers. Everyone is welcome. At this time, there is no cost to attend.
The next session will begin in the week of May 6, 2024, and run for 8 weeks (to the end of June).
If you’re ready to join in, click this link to fill out a short sign-up form.
Writing in Good Company is loosely organized around the concept of academic writing accountability groups, or WAGs. (Read more about WAGs at the Washington University Postdoc Society writing accountability group page or in the paper on Intentional and Unintentional Benefits of Minority Writing Accountability Groups published by Trends in Microbiology.) At Writing in Good Company, instead of rigid ideas of what constitutes “accountability,” the goal is for each participant to learn what kinds of practices support them individually as a writer, scholar, and career scientist. This learning will take place through practice, reflection, and sharing.
Each weekly meeting will provide a quiet, structured space for dedicated writing time. The only requirement is to show up as often as possible. There will be options to participate (or not) in brief weekly check-ins on anxiety levels and accountability goals; to join a writing-silently room or a chat-and-ask-questions-as-needed room; and to join a room dedicated to people of the global majority. There will also be time to ask and answer questions and share resources about the writing side of academic life.
The group will be held on Zoom at a time arranged based on the current members’ schedules and re-evaluated for every 8-week session. It will be organized and hosted by Kyra Freestar, of Bridge Creek Editing and the Academic Editing Circle.
We will begin with the following goals:
- To increase your writing productivity
- To increase your writing awareness, confidence, and satisfaction
- To meet and build connections with other early-career academic writers
- To build the skills and confidence to lead your own academic writing groups in the future
We will begin with the following group agreements:
- We focus on our own and each other’s strengths and believe in each other’s success.
- We participate (or not) in the ways that work for us.
- We take care of ourselves. Stretch, eat, drink, take a break, etc.
- We give each other the benefit of the doubt and ask questions.
- We keep confidentiality: Learning goes, stories stay.
To learn more or sign up, click here to fill out a short survey.
To meet Kyra and ask questions directly, click here to sign up for a 20-minute Zoom call.
To recommend this group to others — friends, colleagues, and colleagues you’d like to be better friends with in the future! — please send them the link to this page or the link to the online sign-up form itself.
You are always of course welcome to email me, at kyra@bridgecreekediting.com, at any time.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Kyra