It's Time for the Winter Faculty Writing Retreat

AIC Boot Camp is a faculty writing retreat for WSU faculty where scholars from across the curriculum meet every day for a week to write, write, write. (The AIC stands for Ass in Chair.) Our first boot camp in August was a great success. Here's a testimonial from participant Erin Flanagan:

"As someone who participated in the first AIC bootcamp, I can't recommend this enough to faculty! We all got so much work done, had a great time getting to know other each other (during breaks, of course), and bonding over the misery and joy of writing. Just knowing we had the commitment to ourselves, each other, and our scholarship each day was a huge motivation."

Boot camp is all about helping faculty make progress on their own writing and research. It is not a time to plan your classes. It's a chance to focus on your scholarship.

But (and it's a big but) it's also about encouraging others, so boot camp requires commitment. Participants commit to attending every day all day. Boot camp requires becoming part of a team. As Boot Camp Founder Sarah Twill puts it, "Get all in, or get out!" Your commitment -- you with ass in chair working -- is key to helping others stay on task when the going gets tough and they want to escape their chairs. The point of AIC is to provide the support of having others right there working as hard as you are and inspiring you to keep working when you start to lose steam. You're there. We're there. We're all in it together.

A willingness to get a bit silly helps too. We're dorky enough about this that we have boot camp gear (as modeled by summer boot campers Deborah Crusan and Lance Greene in the photo at right). For our winter boot camp, we're asking each member to provide a plain top in holiday red (t-shirt, sweatshirt, hoodie, whatever you like) that we will emblazon with the boot camp logo for you. Every boot camper needs a uniform!

Interested? The winter AIC Boot Camp will take place December 1-5 following the original boot camp schedule (below). If you'd like to participate or have questions, email peggy.lindsey@wright.edu and deliver your red boot camp top to her c/o the Department of English, 470 Millett Hall on or before Friday, November 21.

THE AIC BOOT CAMP SCHEDULE

8-8:30 a.m. -- Set up snacks, get comfortable, get caffeinated, share goals for the day

8:30-9:45 -- AIC working. During this time, scholars are in their seats writing. No email checks, no chitchat. Just focus on the task and get the words out.

9:45 - 10:15 -- Break. This is our time to vent, rest, chat, check email, talk through any writing dilemmas, refill the snack supply at our work station to get through the next session.

10:15 - 11:30 -- AIC working

11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. -- Lunch. We eat lunch together but then have time on our own to take a walk, grab a book from the library, check email, etc.

If you prefer to bring your own lunch, you may, or you can be part of the Boot Camp Lunch Bunch. Each Lunch Bunch member chips in $7 per day for their lunch. A different Lunch Bunch member is responsible for choosing the lunch restaurant, gathering orders, and organizing delivery of the lunch each day. Any leftover funds go toward the drinks bill at the graduation party on Friday.

1 - 2:15 -- AIC working

2:15 - 2:45 -- Break

2:45 - 3:30 -- AIC working

3:30 - 4 -- Review day's achievements, receive prizes, and clean up. (Each day, two boot campers are responsible for providing a small prize for everyone to mark that we've all made it through another day. Prizes should be $1-3 per prize per person.)

Faculty Writing Group FAQ

Beginning Monday, September 8, 2008, WAC is sponsoring a weekly faculty writing group in the group study room on the first floor of Dunbar Library (next to the café). Look for the table(s) marked “AIC Faculty Writing Group at Work.”

How does it work? Beginning at 8 a.m., you sit yourself down and you write. (That’s the AIC -- Ass-in-Chair -- part. A bit crass, yes, but let’s face it: that’s what needs to happen if you’re going to get that chapter written or that book finished.) What you write is up to you: a book chapter, a conference paper, research notes, whatever your current scholarly project is. We work for 75 minutes, break for 30, then work for 75 more. During the break, you can move around, grab some caffeine, head to the stacks for a library book you need, shoot the breeze, or ask your peers to help you work through some writing conundrum you may be having. It’s your time to rest your brain and recharge.

Can I arrive late or leave early? Yes. We recognize that many interested faculty may be free for part but not all of this three-hour period. I’ll be leaving each session at about 10:30, for example, because I teach at 11. Just do your best not to disturb working faculty – save the hellos for the break, for example.

How will this help me? If you’re someone who works well alone in a very quiet environment, it probably won’t. This style of working is not for everyone. But if you have difficulty making time for writing during the quarter, struggle with motivating yourself to tackle a writing project, or just get tired of the isolation of working on a project alone, this approach can help. And unlike heading to Panera or Starbucks or the stacks to work on your own, the group approach has the added benefit that you can leave your stuff to run to the restroom or grab a cup of coffee without fear of your belongings disappearing while you’re gone.

What’s this got to do with WAC? So much of Writing Across the Curriculum has focused on student writing, but a trend is emerging that addresses the role of faculty writing in WAC too. One of the most intriguing panels at the WAC Conference this past spring was on faculty writing retreats. If faculty from across the curriculum are thinking and talking with each other about how and what they write, they’ll naturally develop a better understanding of both WAC and of their own writing process. Ideally, they’ll share that knowledge with their students. So the faculty writing group can indirectly improve our teaching of writing because it improves our awareness of ourselves as writers and our knowledge of how other disciplines write.

I’m not free when you meet. What are my options? If you’re interested, but not available on Mondays, email me at peggy.lindsey@wright.edu. Based on interest and availability, we may be able to create additional AIC days. You may also be interested in the AIC Boot Camp, a week-long faculty writing retreat to be held December 1-5. For five days, faculty meet to write all day. I’ll be posting to FAC-L about it and providing a blog with more details later in the quarter.

I have more questions about this. What do I do? Get in touch! You can reply to this blog (anonymously if you choose) by posting a comment. Or email peggy.lindsey@wright.edu. I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Peggy

Welcome to the New btw2!

This summer, David Bringhurst, director of WSU's writing center, decided to combine the center's two blogs, btw2 and writing.bytes, into a single blog for students under writing.bytes. He passed along btw2 to WAC (the writing across the curriculum program) so we can offer a blog where faculty can discuss writing issues.

As the tagline indicates, this blog is about all writing and critical thinking across the curriculum. That means we hope to help our faculty not only with their teaching, but also provide resources to support faculty in their own writing.

So what's next? That depends a lot on you. What would you like to know? What questions/concerns/frustrations do you have about teaching writing? How about with your own writing? Please share them either by adding a comment to this post (you can sign in anonymously if you prefer) or emailing me at peggy.lindsey@wright.edu.

Ideally, this blog will become a forum for exchanging ideas so I'd also like to hear about what you know about writing that works -- whether it's ideas for designing assignments, managing grading, or simply keeping disciplined with your own writing. Have you had great success with some writing technique? Let me know. I'd love to have you as guest blog poster.

In the coming weeks, I'll be posting some of my own tips and tricks. I'll also be sharing information on our faculty writing retreat program, a week-long program where faculty from across the curriculum meet to work on their own writing.

Stay tuned!

Peggy