Xavier Faculty Writing Group

In support of faculty scholarship, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development hosts the Xavier Faculty Writing Group (XULA-WG), a semester-long scholarly writing community. The group, based upon a UNCF-Mellon productivity seminar, seeks to create a community of teacher-scholars supporting each other, investing in the idea of daily writing, and increasing their scholarly output.

Rationale

The goal XULA-WG is to facilitate greater day-to-day and week-to-week scholarly productivity among a small group of faculty members who desire to advance their scholarship but are looking for greater structure within which to accomplish their goals. The methodology behind the group draws on a number of ideas for productivity, but is focused on daily contributions to scholarship in order to maintain momentum and the camaraderie of writing group dynamics.

Process

In line with Wendy Belcher’s Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks and Robert A. Day and Barbara Gastel’s How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, the group requires each participant to have a piece of scholarship that they have begun in some form that they intend to submit for publication by the end of the semester. The group uses a variety of techniques and practices to encourage small yet productive allocations of work time. Participants are expected to attempt daily writing, attend a weekly writing session for at least one hour, and report to the group weekly through progress checks. XULA-WG also provides resources to faculty who participate to help them develop their own vision of their academic strategic plans and productivity pipelines.

Requirements

• Applicants must have a piece of existing scholarship they will work toward submission at the end of the fall semester. While it can be in any state to begin (conference paper, partial draft, extended abstract, etc.), participants must commit to seeing the piece through to the end of the 12 weeks and submitting it for publication.
• Applicants must be willing to commit to the following attend the Writing Kick-Off event.
• Applicants must be willing to meet weekly for one-hour writing session between 11 and 1 on Mondays.
• Applicants must be willing to check in electronically once a week to share their progress with the group and provide feedback to each other.
• Applicants must be willing to commit to a minimum of 15 minutes of writing per day throughout the semester.
• Applicants must be willing to follow the general timetable set by Wendy Belcher's Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks or Robert A. Day and Barbara Gastel’s How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper (depending on track) and to share their work in small chunks to fellow writing group participants.

Past Successes

Coming soon!

Incentives

In addition to the communal support offered through this initiative, participants are provided lunch during the Monday writing sessions.

Eligibility

Proposals my be submitted by any faculty member of Xavier University of Louisiana.

Proposal Requirements

Proposals for participation in the XULA-WG must be submitted using this form and must include the following:

• An up-to-date CV
• A brief description of your intended project