Professor Dana Driscoll pointing at a slide presentationOn Saturday, October 17, the Jones White Writing Center hosted its first Dissertation and Thesis Writing Boot Camp, attended by 80 graduate students from 26 different master's and PhD programs. The boot camp, which took place over Zoom from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., allowed graduate students an opportunity to take a variety of writing workshops, work with tutors, and participate in a silent writing room where they could make progress on their writing.

Workshop topics included goal setting and time management, addressing plagiarism and patchwriting, writing for publication, building arguments and making contributions to the field, managing feedback from committees, and an open Q&A session. Writers could also join a silent writing room, staffed by a tutor, where they could turn off their audio and video and make direct progress on their writing. Many workshop attendees also choose to work with a doctoral student tutor to get direct feedback on their work.

Supporting doctoral education is a critical part of the work that the Jones White Writing Center offers, and includes opportunities for in-person and online tutorials, graduate-student specific workshops, graduate writing groups for long-term support, and the new Dissertation and Thesis Writing Boot Camps.

This Dissertation and Thesis Writing Boot Camp was supported by the Graduate School and the Jones White Writing Center. The Writing Center is currently planning a second Dissertation and Thesis Writing Boot Camp for the spring term which will have a different set of topics and workshops.

About the Writing Center

The Kathleen Jones White Writing Center's helps students become better and more self-sufficient writers. Writing Center tutors offer one-on-one tutoring and group workshops. The Writing Center also provides consultations with faculty members and online resources. Learn more at the Kathleen Jones White Writing Center website.