The Postgraduate Researcher Writing Summer School is usually held in July each year, with workshops covering a range of writing topics. This annual event gives you the opportunity to consider your writing from a range of perspectives; practise your writing in the context of your own work; increase your confidence in your writing; and network with other postgraduate researchers.
Resources
Resources from past Writing Summer Schools are available online. Where possible, the recordings of the workshops are also available. To access these resources, sign in using your University username and password.
2024 Writing Summer School
2024 workshops available on Canvas
Summer School themes: Writing for your thesis & Writing for publication
Workshop titles:
- Perfecting Productive Procrastination
- Mastering Methodology: A Workshop on Academic Research Writing
- Spinning Straw into Gold: Weaving the golden thread throughout the fabric of your PhD
- PGR Panel: the Finishing Line
- Why do we publish our research?
- Responding (Politely) to Reviewers
- The Craft of Writing
- In Conversation (Live!)
2023 Writing Summer School
2023 workshops available on Canvas
Workshop titles:
- Managing Writing Momentum
- Presenting your data
- Good Academic Writing (in other people’s work)
- Making your writing stick with a focus on structure
- Dissemination of research through alternative outlets
- Creative writing for researchers
- Grant Writing Skills
- Collaborative writing
2022 Writing Summer School
2022 workshops available on Canvas
Summer School themes: Writing for your thesis & Writing for publication
Workshop titles:
- Writing the thesis: how to start, how to keep going and how to stop
- Thesis writing tips
- Ending with a bang! Making your conclusion chapter count
- PGR Panel: the finishing line
- Demystifying the Publication Process
- Some perspectives on the peer review process - what it is, how it works, and how to deal with it
- The rollercoaster ride of writing for publication
- Planning your publication strategy: a roundtable discussion
2021 Writing Summer School
2021 workshops available on Canvas
Workshop titles:
- Anticipating your audience
- Abstract writing for papers, conferences, and more
- Writing for a lay audience: e.g. the Guardian and The Conversation
- Writing to raise your social media profile
- Some things I learnt about grant writing along the way
- The struggles and anxieties of writing a literature review
- Writing for professional recognition
- Improving your productivity: read, reflect and write more effectively
2020 Writing Summer School
2020 workshops available on Canvas
Summer School theme: Writing Well
Workshop titles:
- Writing a successful PhD: from beginnings to completion
- Writing for publication: a focus on the introduction of a journal article
- Strategies for Managing Your Writing, Work and Wellbeing
- Responding to feedback
- Writing your thesis well: PGR Panel discussion
2019 Writing Summer School
2019 workshops available on Canvas
Summer School themes: Writing for your thesis & Writing for publication
Workshop titles:
- Argumentation and Thesis Structure
- Fundamentals of Thesis Writing
- Reviewing the Literature
- Thesis Writing PGR Panel Discussion
- Demystifying the Publication Process
- Publication Ethics
- Writing for Publication
- PGR Publication Experiences
2018 Writing Summer School
2018 workshops available on Canvas
Workshop titles:
- Mapping academic writing for research
- The final product: what does a PhD Thesis (or MRes Dissertation) look like?
- Voices in your thesis
- Writing for a purpose
- Exploring your identity as a writer through Lego Serious Play
- Reviewing the Literature – What, Why, When and How
- Selling ideas: writing persuasively about you and your research
- PGR Panel discussion: "Yay, I'm done!" - getting your thesis written
2017 Writing Summer School
2017 workshops available on Canvas
Workshop titles:
- The shape of academic writing
- What is academic motive?
- Voices in your thesis
- Writing successful job applications: who gets hired
- Creative approaches to academic writing
- Publishing in academic journals: tips to help you succeed
- Navigating the maze of research and writing tools
- Avoiding accidental plagiarism
- Publishing in the sciences
- How can the Birmingham e-Theses Repository help me develop my own academic writing style?
- Opening up your research