PAL Writing Groups 2014-2015

In the humanities, writing is at the very heart of an academic’s intellectual life. The struggle to find the right words is also a struggle to find the right analysis, the right perspective, the right claims. Writing is not something we do after we have worked it all out: if writing is so hard, it is because it is a process in which we do, sentence after sentence, the hard work of thinking. To be an intellectual is to be a writer.

This year PAL takes its commitment to graduate students’ writing to a new level. 

Building on the success of our two Writing Is Thinking (WIT) events in 2011 and 2013, we will organize our third Writing Is Thinking symposium. This time, our keynote speaker will be Verlyn Klinkenborg — the well-known writing teacher and non-fiction writer, and long-time member of the New York Times Editorial Board. This event will happen in the last week of February, 2015. (Click here for more information nearer the time.)

This year, we will do more. PAL will also sponsor writing groups intended for graduate students at every level, from first years to dissertation writers, and in every discipline in the humanities and interpretive social sciences.

Come to our party on Monday September 8^th to find out more! Click here to download the PAL Writing Group Application, and note that the first Writing Group workshop, in which Professor Jennifer Ahern-Dodson and Professor Kristen Neuschel from the Thompson Writing Program will offer expert advice on how to set up and run a writing group, will be on September 18.

• The second Writing Group Workshop is Tues Oct 7 on The Writing Process: How to Move your Writing Forward.
• The third Writing Group Workshop is Tues Nov 18 on The Writing Process: From Evidence-gathering to Drafting.

Once the groups are up and running, PAL will support them in various ways:

• PAL writing group members will get a get a copy of Verlyn Klinkenborg’s book Several Short Sentences About Writing, as a gift from the Thompson Writing Program.
• PAL will organize a monthly meeting (with food and wine!) to discuss various aspects of writing life in academia. Duke faculty will share their writing experiences, and there will be plenty of opportunities to discuss issues in writing. Dates for these meetings are Tuesdays Oct 7, Nov 18, Dec 2, Jan 27.
• PAL writing group members will be able to consult with Verlyn Klinkenborg via Skype or email long before he comes to Duke.
• At Duke, Klinkenborg will schedule a special, closed session for PAL writing group members

Finally: PAL could not do any of this without the vigorous support of Duke’s Thompson Writing Program, and the Graduate School.

• September 2, 2014