SAGE 2YC 2021 Writing Workshop

Workshop Schedule

Day 1: Examples of practice (B)
Day 2: Analysis (C) + title
Day 3: Introduction (A)
Day 4: Lessons learned, recommendations (D)
Day 5: Full draft, with conclusions (E)

Day 1: Introduction and work on individual "stories" (Section B)

• Introductions & Workshop Overview (~15 minutes)
• Working Together (~60 minutes)
  • Community norms and questions for chapter teams to consider for working together
  • Your writing process (interactive activity) - sketch your writing process (5 minutes) then share with the group. What takeaways, inspired by these images, might help you work more successfully with your co-authors?
  • Demonstration of project folder structure, Google docs, ...
• Writing Session: Work on your chapter with your author team (2¼ hours including 30 minute break). Decide who will be equity coach, time-keeper, note-taker for today.
  • Read the other examples (ideally done before the workshop)
  • Discuss
    • What is most important for your readers to know from the examples? Is there anything else that you want the readers to know that wasn't addressed?
    • Discuss a possible common/complementary format/structure for these examples for section B of the chapter. Consider using a common order or sequence.
    • Considering your own experience/example, of what are you most proud?
  • Individual writing - Revise your description/example based on points above & what you want others to know about your example. Add your text to your chapter template.
  • Share your revised example/description with your team for feedback.
• Debrief, New Directions for Community CollegesVolume, Concluding Remarks, Roadcheck (30 minutes)
  • One accomplishment from today - write in the chat
  • Overview: New Directions for Community College volume (writing style, guidelines)
  • Authorship guidelines
  • Concluding remarks
  • Daily roadcheck

Day 2: Analysis (Section C) + chapter title

• Roadcheck Report (~5 minutes)
• Writing Tip and Getting Focused (~50 minutes)
  • Rock Metaphor - write in blocks of time - 15 minutes (5 minute break), 30 minutes (10 min break), or 45 minutes (15 min break) from "Writing Rocks" from Monday Motivator, Kerry Ann Rocquemore, National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity
  • Analysis of examples
    • Freewriting activity (6 minutes) - Getting down your ideas as they come without worrying about grammar, spelling, punctuation, or judging the ideas - just write
      • What are common threads throughout the examples?
      • What motivated your work on this topic?
      • What are some key outcomes of your work on this topic?
      • Why should others care about your outcomes?
    • Discuss freewrites with team members (round-the room)
• Writing Session - Begin structuring and writing up Section C: Analysis [analysis of examples, outcomes ...] and possible titles. Decide who will be note-taker, equity-coach, & time-keeper today
  • Continue the freewrite analysis discussion.
  • You've shared common threads in your examples. Are there distinct differences in your examples? What aspects of such differences would be important to address in the chapter?
  • Begin outlining a possible organization for this section
  • Divide up possible parts of Section C (e.g., Needs, Common Strategies, Outcomes); each author writes for at least 30 minutes.
  • Leave time to share what you have written and get responses from other authors.
  • Based on ideas generated in today's freewriting and other work on your chapter, brainstorm possible titles for your chapter. Decide on the 3 or 4 best titles and include those in your chapter template. You could do this in the last 10 minutes of this writing session.
• Daily Debrief
  • Questions, comments. Use the Bulletin Board as a resource. If you have requests for feedback, including review of a section or the current draft, sign up on Bulletin Board
  • Titles (Give the point of the paper to the reader, include key words, get someone to read the chapter). Comment on titles of other chapters, considering
    • What do you think the chapter focus will be?
    • Which do you think is most effective, and why?
    • Any suggestions for a variation in the title?
  • Roadcheck

Day 3: The introduction 

• Roadcheck Report (~5 minutes)
• Writing Tip and Getting Focused
  • Engaging the reader. How might you move the reader into the world of your chapter? Some techniques used to engage readers are given below. (~25 minutes)
    • What an introduction can do: get the audience's attention, introduce the topic, explain the relevance of the topic to the audience, state the purpose or focus of the chapter, outline the main points. See example (quote & anecdote from Kimberly Tanner (2017) Promoting Student Metacognition | CBE—Life Sciences Education.
    • Think and write individually (5 minutes); share in breakout group with authors from other teams (12 minutes), then short responses (a few minutes)
  • Introducing your chapter - breakout groups in  teams (~25 minutes)
    • Freewrite (5 minutes) Consider the following questions
      • Why is this work important?  Why should the readers care?
      • How can you place your chapter topic in a larger context (e.g., higher ed, institutional needs and goals, and/or leveraging faculty as change agents)?
    • In breakout groups, round-the-room (~14 minutes)
      • Share responses to 1st question, taking notes on the responses, repeat for 2nd question, take notes
• Writing Session - Begin working on your introduction. Decide who will be equity coach, time-keeper, note-taker today. Consider the following guiding questions (other possibilities are on the template). These are guides not prescriptions.
  • What would make an engaging opening? How will you draw the reader(s) into your story?
  • Introduce purpose and explain relevance of topic.
    • Why is this work important?  Why should the readers care?
    • How can you place your chapter topic in a larger context?
    • Are there any terms that need to be defined or contextualized?
  • What should the readers know about prior work?
  • What (key) references are needed?
  • How will you give the reader a "roadmap" of where the paper is going?
  • Share what you have written with your team, and put what you've written to date in your chapter template. You can continue to work on it, rearrange sections, and add/respond to comments.
• Debrief and Roadcheck
  • Add any requests to the editorial team for feedback, finding other (SAGE 2YC) examples, and/or suggestions for few references to the Bulletin Board.
  • Share tips, suggestions for what has worked well in your author team for getting writing done (1 minute to think on own, breakout groups (authors from different teams) - 9 minutes, One brief report out from each breakout room.

Day 4: Lessons learned, recommendations

• Roadcheck Report  (5 min)
• Writing Tip and Getting Focused
  • Writing with the reader in mind (move from writer-based prose to reader-based prose (details given on slide) (~3 min)
  • Lessons learned:  What are your top 2 or 3 lessons learnedrelated to your topic?  Bulleted list - breakouts (~22 min)
    • Individual thinking/writing (~ 5 minutes)
    • Group time (~15 minutes)
      • Decide on note-taker (for template or other google doc)
      • Share your lessons learned (round-the-room, 1 lesson/person each time)
      • Generate and discuss a list of lessons learned, combining or grouping individual "lessons learned"
      • If you have time, put lessons learned in an order that makes sense to your team.
  • Moving from lessons learned to recommendations (see diagram) - lessons learned is looking backwards, recommendations is looking/moving forward
    • What are easy-to-implement changes that can be made?
    • What are longer term/systemic types of changes that can be made?
    • How could one build on structures that are already in place?
    • What resources are needed to allow for more consistent/permanent change?
    • What can you do with these lessons to inspire others to make changes?
    • Consider various audiences as relevant to your chapter, e.g., administrators, faculty leaders, faculty, policy makers, students ...
    • Lessons learned and recommendations (and outcomes) may blur together at times.
  • Recommendations for various audiences - breakouts  What is needed to successfully use, implement, and support the approaches discussed in this chapter? Considering lessons learned and different audiences, generate a bulleted list of recommendations. Be aspirational!  (~20 min)
    • Individually generate a list (write so you can cut and paste): (~5 minutes)
    • Breakout groups: (~15 minutes)
      • Put all the lists into a single list, then combine similar recommendations
      • Discuss possible ways to arrange recommendations with the reader in mind (e.g., by audience, by easier to implement vs longer-term goals, etc.), then arrange them.
      • Recommendation section structure - make it easy on the reader to get an overview as well as details. See examples in NDCC chapters: (1) Tvelia et al. (2021) short intro paragraphs, then for each lesson learned, a few bullet points of recommendations (each recommendation includes a short phrase in bold of the action, followed by one or more sentences.  (2) Maier et al. (2021 ) a series of recommendations - short action phrase in bold followed by one or more sentences.
• Writing Session - Lessons learned and recommendations. Decide who will be note-taker, equity-coach, & time-keeper for today.
  • Write up lessons learned and recommendations
  • Consider giving recommendations in a way that it is easy for the reader to follow
    • What is the action, and who is associated with it?
    • Organized in some way (e.g., audience, ease of implementation)
    • Easy to scan to get highlights (e.g., bulleted list that includes descriptive sentences)
  • Set a time limit to write, then share what you have written with other authors.
  • Prepare reverse outline or "skeleton"  . [Reserve 30 minutes to complete the skeleton]. To reveal the organization of your chapter (so far), help strengthen its logic, and identify any gaps, please complete the following exercise. Take your draft and  construct a sentence outline of the main points, paragraph-by-paragraph (sometimes called a "reverse outline").  This outline will reveal the "skeleton" of your chapter at this moment.
  • Recommendation: template or working draft should include what you've written to date with the instructions removed
• Debrief and Roadcheck
  • What did you learn from doing the reverse outline or "skeleton"? This could be about your chapter organization, writing process, or other lessons.
  • Individual thinking (1 minute)
  • Breakouts: Groups, not teams (10 minutes)
  • Short report outs
  • Roadcheck

Day 5: Conclusions and a full draft

• Roadcheck Report(~5 min)
• Writing Tip and Getting Focused
  • Moving forward: Discussion of group processes (~20 minutes)  Communication and decision-making Time to think (~1 minute); Time for discussion, round-the-room (~15 minutes); Share 1 short response (each team)
    • How will you/your group approach the process of commenting, revision, and editing. Editing vs suggesting changes in google docs?  Making the "final decisions" on a given section?
    • How will you/your group work to keep track of progress, approach deadlines, and accountability/reminders
    • Other aspects?
  • The conclusion A conclusion can take many forms. It can provide psychological closure without closing off; a call to action; at the end, it pulls things together; it inspires. Consider the following techniques: (~20 minutes)
    • Reconnect with the introduction through keywords, the bookend of an example given, a quotation that brings home your main point. You should have the last word
    • Wrap up by indicating how you accomplished what you set out to do/prove.
    • Rephrase the purpose of the chapter with a fresh and deeper understanding.
    • Propel the reader to a new way of thinking about the topic.
    • Point to broader implications.
    • Give your reader something to think about.
  • See two conclusions from the NDCC Disciplinary societies chapters - physics and adjuncts (each 1 paragraph, one 3 sentences, one longer)
  • Considering the techniques in the list above, and before writing your conclusion, identify 1 or more techniques that might be useful.
    • Individual thinking (5 minutes); Group sharing and discussion in breakouts: (14 minutes)
  • Plan for the day  in breakout rooms (~10 minutes)
• Writing Session-  Decide who will be note-taker, equity-coach, & time-keeper for this session.
  • Draft your conclusion (~20-30  minutes)
  • Moving forward: Plan for next steps (~30 minutes)
    • Your chapter (your skeleton and template)
      • Identify what needs to be done and who will do it
      • Make a timeline with deadlines for finishing your work
      • Make your plan in a way that works for your group
    • Discuss authorship
  • Work on chapter where needed  (~30 minutes)
  • Make sure your entire "clean" draft is in the template 
  • Meet back
• Concluding Session & End-of-workshop Evaluation  (45 minute session)
  • Next week each team will get feedback on skeleton (ideally this feedback before Thursday session) and on EOW draft
  • Look back at the week, what is one (1) thing you are proud of in your chapter? Time to think, then everyone shares
  • Questions about anything
  • What is one thing you learned or gained from the workshop. Time to think, then briefly share with the group.
• Concluding remarks
• End-of-workshop evaluation
  • For first week participants: What advice would you give to participants in next week's workshop?