By Dr Peter Whitton
Researcher Development Officer
One of the most enjoyable parts of my work since joining DCAD in February 2019 as Researcher Development Officer, has been working with colleagues to run writing retreats for our doctoral research students. I have been involved in three so far, which have been organised with DCAD through their Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) or Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs). DTPs and CDTs are multi-institutional schemes designed to support the training of the next generation of world-class researchers who receive additional financial, networking and development support.
On the first of these retreats, we took students from the NINE (Northern Ireland and North East) DTP to the Raven Hall Hotel in Ravenscar near Scarborough. These students were at various stages of their doctoral studies, working in a variety of social science single-discipline, and inter-disciplinary pathways.
Later in the year, we took students working in the areas of Bioscience, Bio energy and Food Security from the Newcastle, Liverpool and Durham BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) DTP to The Craiglands Hotel in Ilkley. In addition, we included four Durham students who had won funded places on the retreat through a DCAD competition.
Finally in mid-October, we took 12 international students from the GCRF CDT (Global Challenges Research Fund – Centre for Doctoral Training) to the Dove Marine Laboratory in Cullercoats, North Shields.
These events have varied in length from 1-3 days, and the students come from a range of disciplines and have a variety of development needs. Some of the groups know each other well, others are meeting for the first time or have only interacted online. However the thing that unites them is their willingness to engage in the writing retreat process as a way of moving their doctoral writing forward.
The programme that we follow, closely mirrors a structure developed by Rowena Murray and Mary Newton (2009) which advocates a ‘typing pool’ model where the emphasis is on the quantity rather than quality of words. The retreats that DCAD have facilitated share a number of common factors which help to make this productive time away.
- The students are taken from the university, away from the distractions associated with the campus, family life and caring responsibilities to a place of natural beauty. This is usually a hotel, where they also do not have to worry about food and refreshments – which are all provided.
- The writing days are heavily structured, combining intense blasts of writing with reflective goal setting and physical activity (usually walking close to the venue).
- The students are encouraged to get words on paper and to think about the finer points of structure, grammar, data, and referencing and other academic quality issues at another time. In other words, separating the writing process from editing process.
- Writing is carried out socially, but in virtual silence without the distractions of phones and social media, with the facilitator on hand to keep the students writing to time and on task.
From my experiences, these retreats tend work for a number of reasons:
- Time set aside to warm up and plan enables writing to be carried out efficiently and realistically.
- Writing, and importantly the resting between writing, is structured, so there are strict boundaries between the productive and latent parts of the day.
- Coming together to write creates a sense of being ‘in something together’, a feeling of mutual endeavour.
- Discussing writing goals with others helps to keep participants on track.
- Over time the group begins to think of themselves as writers.