Writing retreats offer dedicated writing time in a supportive, non-surveillance environment: most of the time for writing, all of us writing at the same time. At retreats people can work on their writing projects: chapters, books, reports, PhDs, conference abstracts, AHE Fellowships, articles, research proposals, fiction or other non-fiction. Retreat outcomes include increased productivity, reduced stress, constructive conversations, confidence in writing, quality of writing and cross-disciplinary talk.

For this workshop on campus-based writing retreats we will be joined by Rowena Murray who has been leading workshops of this kind across the UK. At the workshop we will learn more about the benefits of meeting regularly for campus-based writing retreats as well as how best to how to run a retreat of this kind. The workshop will also include structured time for practice writing.

Ahead of the retreat participants are encouraged to read Murray R & Newton M (2009) Writing retreat as structured intervention: Margin or mainstream?, Higher Education Research and Development, 28(5): 527-39. Learn more about Rowena Murray's work here.

Rowena Murray graduated with MA (Hons) from Glasgow University and PhD (with Distinction) from the Pennsylvania State University. She is Professor in the School of Education and Social Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland and, formerly, was Visiting Professor at Swinburne University, Melbourne, and has held international appointments in Ireland, Japan and South Africa. Her research focuses on academic writing, the subject of her books – How to Write a Thesis, Writing for Academic Journals, The Handbook of Academic Writing (co-authored with Sarah Moore) and Writing in Social Spaces – and articles in Higher Education journals.

The workshop will take place in Lanyon Building in room OG/054. Coffee and lunch will be provided.