The GCOS Dissertation Bootcamp gives you five days to work on a project in a supportive community of writers.

The Bootcamp Week

Each retreat day is structured around quiet morning and afternoon work sessions. The week begins with Finding a High Place, Enhancing the View, a guided workshop designed to help you set your goals for the week. We’ll also discuss staying focused, maintaining motivation and using time. The retreat closes with Staying Found, a workshop to help you review the previous week and plan your semester. Both sessions are led by Robert Danberg (Senior Instructor, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, Binghamton University Writing Initiative). These workshops are required for participation in the bootcamp. A draft schedule for the retreat week is available here.

A Community of Writers

The creation of a community writers is built into the retreat week. Each day starts and ends with a brief “Accountability Group” meeting based the model Paul Silvia describes in his book How To Write A Lot. Your group will help you prioritize tasks and maintain motivation. At the end of the first morning’s workshop, you’ll meet the members of your group and learn how to make a group work. For a more detailed description, please see Accountability Groups.

Workshops on the Writing Process

We will offer two optional events on the second and third day of the bootcamp. You can choose to attend one of these events or work on your project via Write on Site.

Free Writing, Morning Pages, Journals, Short Assignments: Writing Practice, Practice Writing

Robert Danberg will lead a session that explores low-stakes writing as a structured, routine approach to generating text, starting work sessions, and producing first drafts. This is an approach used by faculty across disciplines, including the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

Reading for Writing in Your Discipline

Many writers in academic disciplines identify the moment when they began to analyze model texts one of the most important for their craft. Robert Danberg will lead a discussion on how analyze key genre features in disciplinary writing, such as style and structure. Please bring a model text, such as a journal article, to the session.

The accountability group structure is adapted from Paul Silvia’s How to Write a Lot. During the bootcamp week, you’ll start and end each day with a group meeting.

At the end of the first morning’s workshop, we’ll discus how a group of this kind differs from writing groups that focus on reading pages or problem solving. You’ll be assigned a group. We’ll discuss ground rules for effective meetings.

Your group meetings will not be long. Fifteen to twenty minutes is generally enough, although the first meeting may take longer. You may decide to take more time (a half hour) for the meeting you hold at the end of a day.

Group meetings begin with each member describing their goals for the day, whether they met them, what might have gotten in the way, what worked, and plans for today or tomorrow.

Typically, the format for each speaker is:

My goals for __________  were __________.  Some things that worked for me were_________. My goals for today/tomorrow are __________.

While problem solving is not the focus of a group meeting, group members often connect during the retreat day and after to share  solutions and resources.

Zoom Meeting Link

You will use this link to attend all sessions of the retreat. The password is: writing. The password is case sensitive. Authentication is activated, please log in using your Binghamton university account.

Monday, February 1, 2021

Morning session

9:45 am – 11:45 am: Finding a High Place, Enhancing the View with Robert Danberg, Senior Instructor, Coordinator of Campus Wide Writing Support, The Binghamton University Writing Initiative

11:45 am – 12:00 pm: Meet your accountability group.  Review the group guidelines.

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Lunch

1:00 pm: The workspace will reopen for anyone wanting to join early.

Afternoon Session

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Write!

4:00 pm: Goal check-in with group.

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Morning session

9:45 am: Goal setting and reporting with your group. Set goals for the session. Check in on goals from yesterday. Write on Site begins when the group ends, which might vary by group.

10:15 am – 12:00 pm:  Write on Site or Optional Workshop: Free Writing, Morning Pages, Journals, Short Assignments: Writing Practice, Practice Writing

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Lunch

1:00 pm: The workspace will reopen for anyone wanting to join early.

Afternoon Session

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Write on Site

4:00 pm – 4:15 pm: Goal check-in with group.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Morning session

9:45 am: Goal setting and reporting with your group. Set goals for the session. Check in on goals from yesterday. Write on Site begins when the group ends, which might vary by group.

10:15 am – 12:00 pm:  Write on Site or Optional Workshop: Reading for Writing in Your Discipline

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Lunch

1:00 pm: The workspace will reopen for anyone wanting to join early.

Afternoon Session

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Write on Site

4:00 pm – 4:15 pm: Goal check-in with group.

Thursday, February 4, 2021

Morning session

9:45 am: Goal setting and reporting with your group. Set goals for the session. Check in on goals from yesterday. Write on Site begins when the group ends, which might vary by group.

10:15 am – 12:00 pm:  Write on Site  

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Lunch

1:00 pm: The workspace will reopen for anyone wanting to join early.

Afternoon Session

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Write on Site

4:00-4:15 pm: Goal check-in with group.

Friday, February 5, 2021

Morning session

9:45 am: Goal setting and reporting with your group. Set goals for the session. Check in on goals from yesterday. Write on Site begins when the group ends, which might vary by group.

10:15 am – 12:00pm:  Write on Site

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm: Short Lunch

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Staying Found: Looking Towards the Semester and final accountability group meeting.

Below you’ll find a list of books and resources that inform the Summer Faculty Writing Retreat and come recommended by writers.

Academic Writers and Writing Productivity

Professors as Writers — Robert Boice

How to Write a Lot — Paul Silvia

Air and Light and Time and Space: How Successful Academics Write — Helen Sword

Getting Things Done — David Allen

The Clockwork Muse — Eviatar Zerubavel

Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks — Wendy Lauren Belcher

Finishing School — Cary Tennis

Style/The Writer’s Art and Craft

Stylish Academic Writing — Helen Sword

The Writer’s Diet — Helen Sword

Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace — Joseph Williams

Several Short Sentences About Writing — Verlyn Klinkenborg

Economical Writing — Deirdre McCloskey

On Writing Well — William Zinnser

So, You Want to Write — Dorothea Brande

The Art of Memoir — Mary Kerr

Free Writing, Creativity, and the Writer’s Life

Writing Without Teachers — Peter Elbow

Writing With Power — Peter Elbow

Writing Down the Bones — Natalie Goldberg

The Artist’s Way — Julia Cameron

Art and Fear — David Bayles and Ted Orland

Fearless Creating: A Step-by-Step Guide To Starting and Completing Your Work of Art — Eric Maisel

Writer’s Memoir

Bird by Bird — Annie Lamott

On Writing — Stephen King

Draft No. 4 — John McPhee

Resource Site

The Writing Initiative maintains a site, bit.ly/writebu, where you’ll find articles, suggestions for practice, and links to other resources.

Register by  2021: Bootcamp Registration

Questions? Contact Robert Danberg (rdanberg@binghamton.edu)

During the week, we will be using Slack for communicating between groups and group members, answering last-minute questions, and sharing notes or messages.

For example, if you’d like to set up additional Write on Site times during the bootcamp week, you can post a call for participants.

Since we’re not sitting side by side during the bootcamp Write on Sites, you can easily communicate with your group members through the channel we’ll set up for your group.

You will be invited to join the Slack page, “Dissertation Bootcamp Winter 21”. We encourage you to introduce yourself, post channels, and communicate with your colleagues.

Click here for more videos about navigating through Slack.

Accountability Groups