This document provides guidance for establishing an effective writing group for scientists, including suggestions for choosing group members and projects, setting a schedule, and troubleshooting challenges that may arise. It outlines factors to consider when selecting people who are motivated and have complementary skills and projects. The writing group is intended to provide structure and accountability to help members consistently make progress on their academic writing.

1. A Writing Group Strategy for
Scientists
Gizem Karaali, PhD
Candice Price, PhD
Amanda Ruiz, PhD
SACNAS 2015

2. Gizem Karaali Candice Price
Associate Professor Assistant Professor
Pomona College Sam Houston State University
Mathematics Department Mathematics Department
Who are we?

3. ∗Pick people who believe in the process.
∗Pick people at a similar level.
∗Pick people motivated to work.
∗Pick people who have something to do.
∗Pick a group that is comfortable with
one another.
Picking your writing group

4. Remember that this is a writing group.
Thus, you will be working on a project
where the research portion is “finished”.
See our handout on some suggestions for
what types of projects might be ideal to
work on for this writing group.
Picking your project

5. ∗ Do you have any papers you submitted that got rejected with
reviews that burned?
∗ Do you have any papers you submitted that got accepted or came
back with revise & resubmit suggestions and that you are still
sitting on?
∗ Do you have any math that you have done already that needs to
be written down, but oh that time has never come?
∗ Do you have a project that most of the math is done but you do
need to tweak this example and make sure the theorem works for
that subcase and so on?
∗ Do you have a dissertation that still needs mining for a paper or
two?
∗ Are you determined that this semester you will submit that grant
proposal?
Picking your project!

6. ∗8 week schedule vs
10 week schedule vs
other?
∗Weekly schedule?
Setting your schedule

7. ∗ Don’t expect/need inspiration (or
be like Somerset Maugham!)
∗ Whatever you do counts!
∗ Keep time!
∗ Park downhill!
What happens in each writing
session

8. Some possible scenarios:
∗ sick child / partner / parent
∗ sick writer
∗ unexpected committee meeting
∗ computer trouble
∗ natural disaster
∗ fatal mistake
∗ unresponsive collaborator / advisor
Things that will go wrong…

9. Let us brainstorm solutions!
What to do about them…

10. ● Academic Writing Club: The Academic Writing Club is an easily-accessible,
interactive and supportive online community of experts and colleagues that provides a support system so that
you can learn and consistently employ techniques specific to productive and prolific academic writing.
● Publication Coach:Publication Coach brings techniques from daily journalism and time
management, and adapts them to meet your writing needs.
● Online stopwatch: Online stopwatch is one of the many freely available online
stopwatch / countdown gadgets. I actually prefer to use the full-screen version. You can definitely use it as
part of the Pomodoro Technique (see above) or with any other productivity plan that requires you to work for
a fixed amount of time.
● Wendy Belcher’s Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A
Guide to Academic Publishing Success
This is a revolutionary approach to enabling academic authors to overcome their anxieties and produce the
publications that are essential to succeeding in their fields. Each week, readers learn a particular feature of
strong articles and work on revising theirs accordingly. At the end of twelve weeks, they send their article to a
journal.
Resources

11. Friends don’t let friends write alone…
Let’s write!
gizem.karaali@pomona.edu
candice.price@shsu.edu
Writing doesn’t have to be lonely…