This seminar-style workshop series is designed for multilingual graduate students with English as a non-dominant language. Workshop activities include richly varied writing, reading, and language-specific tasks designed to develop academic writers. Participants will learn how to apply their analytical skills to the discourses of their chosen disciplines and explore how effective academic writing in Western scholarly tradition is achieved.

Required textbook:
Swales, John M., & Feak, Christine B. (2011). Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills (3rd Edition). Ann Arbor: U of Michigan Press (ISBN: 978-0472-03475-8). (PDF Available)

This seminar style workshop is designed for multilingual graduate students with English as a non-dominant language. Grammar is presented through a functional description of the language resources that can be used to create meaning clearly, communicate with the reader appropriately, and organize a message effectively.

Required textbook:
Grammar Choices for Graduate and Professional Writers (2nd edition) by Nigel A. Caplan University of Michigan Press, 2019. An e-book is available from Amazon. 

Description: Join the Summer Thesis Writing Group to make some serious progress on your thesis! The Summer Thesis Writing Group is modeled after other successful online writing groups that use scheduled time to work on their writing with the (quiet) presence and support of other writers. The Research Commons remains devoted to supporting SFU graduate student researchers, even though we are now working from a distance!

What you can expect

The Summer Thesis Writing Group will be held via Zoom. It will be hosted and moderated by members of the Graduate Writing Facilitator team, who will be available for writing support, along with a Librarian for research support. An Assistant for Theses will also be available for some of the sessions for any questions about using the thesis template, formatting, or the thesis submission process. The sessions will be held on Fridays, 9:00 am – 12 noon for 5 weeks, starting July 17^th and concluding August 14^th.

The online writing group format

Some of you may already be familiar with or have participated in online writing groups. For both those with and without experience, we encourage you to join us for this unique experience! Like Thesis Boot Camp that some of you may be familiar with, the group will begin each session by briefly checking in and setting goals in small groups before turning to dedicated writing time. Participants can request support from our team through the chat feature, and consultations/discussions will take place in a breakout room. The 3-hour sessions will conclude with the group coming together and discussing any reflections or areas of interest/concern.

Writers will be asked to keep their microphones muted while writing, and the use of webcams is welcome but entirely optional for each participant. 

Registration

Registration is available for all 5-weeks of sessions combined. We ask that registered participants commit to attending each session to the extent that their schedules allow, and that those who would like to join but know in advance that they will not be available to attend one or several sessions to please let us know in advance. Similar to Thesis Boot Camp registration, this is to ensure that we offer ample resources to best support students dedicated to making serious progress on their theses during this time period.

Registration will be limited to 30 participants. Please register by Tuesday, July 14^th at 4:00pm, after which registrants will be contacted with confirmation and further instructions.

If you have any questions about the Summer Thesis Writing Group, please contact Robyn Long, Writing Services Coordinator for graduate students, at robyn_long@sfu.ca.

This seminar style workshop is designed for multilingual graduate students with English as a non-dominant language. Grammar is presented through a functional description of the language resources that can be used to create meaning clearly, communicate with the reader appropriately, and organize a message effectively.

Required textbook:
Grammar Choices for Graduate and Professional Writers (2nd edition) by Nigel A. Caplan University of Michigan Press, 2019. An e-book is available from Amazon.