Graduate Academic Support
Graduate Academic Support
Graduate Writing Support
Graduate Writing Workshops
Navigating Research: Effective Note-Taking and Literature Management Techniques
October 7, 6pm-7pm
Writing a literature review? Working on a research paper? Here’s a good place to start. Learn about your “research workflow,” and the many possibilities that exist for finding, managing, and using scholarly sources in graduate writing!
Graduate Writing Mini-Lessons
These short lessons are meant to help get you on the right foot when you are working on a long writing project, like a thesis or dissertation.
Having trouble balancing school, work, and your actual life? This mini-lesson breaks down the steps to creating a writing schedule that incorporates all of those things, and does its best to keep you sane during a very anxiety-inducing period in getting your degree.
Learn how to set up achievable, productive, realistic goals that will see you through the process of writing your thesis/dissertation from beginning to end.
Handling and Applying Feedback
Better understand the kinds of feedback on your writing that you will encounter, both from your advisor/committee and from peers, and how to deal with the feelings that might come up when receiving that feedback. Use proven methods to prioritize and apply that feedback to make your writing even better.
It can be difficult to figure out how to incorporate sources into your work without just dropping endless quotes into the text, or repeating back things you've already read while only changing a few words. Use this lesson to better understand how to paraphrase information to make it new and different from its original use.
Revision is the time when your best writing happens, so you should always take revising very seriously. In this mini-lesson, you will learn a revision method that helps you to understand exactly what you are trying to say, and to say it in the best way possible.
Anyone who has worked on an literature review can tell you that trying to use sources both responsibly and smoothly can be difficult. This lesson will teach you about synthesis, which is the method of using external sources in conversation with each other and with your own ideas to create something new.
Writing Anxiety & Procrastination
Everyone procrastinates, and everyone feels like they don't know how to write. This lesson will help you to understand why you feel intimidated by the fact that you have to write something like a thesis or dissertation, and will hopefully give you some tools to work through those feelings.
Thesis, Dissertation, and Academic Paper Drop-Off
The Writing Center offers a drop-off service for longer pieces of graduate student writing. After uploading your document, your work will be assigned to a Graduate Tutor. Your tutor will read your uploaded document, keeping in mind any special areas of concern you have indicated, and will respond as a reader. This feedback will be sent to you in a client report form through the automated system. There is a 25-page limit to the documents uploaded to the drop-off service; if you intend to send a document that is longer than 25 pages, please know that your assigned tutor will only work on 25 pages per drop-off. If you so choose, you may schedule an appointment with your tutor, to discuss your feedback after your tutor has returned it to you.
To access this service, please visit https://rowan.mywconline.com/ and be sure to indicate your standing as a Graduate student in the form you complete as you make your appointment.
A Note On Tutor Availability:
There are a limited number of tutors who are assigned read-ahead work, and a limited amount of time allotted for read-ahead preparation and consultations. This service is first-come, first-served, and time slots are scheduled as they are requested. If the service becomes particularly busy, your appointment might occur a few weeks after you initially upload your document here. If you intend to ask for a read-ahead appointment, please do so early.
Questions may be directed to writingcenter@rowan.edu or graduateresearch@rowan.edu.
Hootcamp Thesis & Dissertation Retreat
Hootcamp is a “writing bootcamp” experience for graduate students working on their thesis or dissertation. It is a three-day productivity event, where students are able to focus all of their attention on making progress in the actual writing of their thesis or dissertation. Writers will be given a quiet space with structured writing time, limited distractions, and a small community of peers, in order to produce as much thesis/dissertation material as possible in just a few days. There will also be Writing Center consultants available for brief meetings, and one short presentation each day covering topics like writing anxiety, the writing process, and maintaining a writing schedule.
“Thesis bootcamps” are commonly offered in universities across the US and beyond, and have been found to be very successful in boosting student productivity as they draw closer to semester deadlines. The goal is to take away all excuses each student might have to not be writing, and in doing so, make writing their number one priority for each day of the camp. If you find yourself having trouble maintaining focus, having trouble starting a particularly daunting part of your draft, or just overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work that is ahead of you, Hootcamp is the perfect place to come and find the support you need.
To learn more, or to sign up for the next Hootcamp session, please visit the Hootcamp webpage.
One-On-One Writing Tutoring
If you are looking for hands-on assistance from an experienced writing tutor, you may reach out to the Writing Center at writingcenter@rowan.edu for individualized assistance. In your email, please indicate that you are a graduate student, and let us know what your area of study is, what kind of assistance you are looking for, and how far along you are in your program. Please keep in mind that writing tutors are not editors; they will not fix your grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors for you, but if it is requested, they will point those errors out to you and explain how you can fix them yourself throughout the document. Try to be as specific as possible when explaining the kind of help that you need, so that the Writing Center can place you with the best possible tutor for the situation.
Graduate Student Writing Groups
Ed.D. in Educational Leadership Dissertation Writing Group
International Graduate Student Writing Group
[coming soon]