Vol. 6, No. 2 Fall 2024
Sarah King, Writing Support Coordinator, Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of Toronto Scarborough
When I was an undergraduate, I found academic writing assignments highly stressful. Books would pile up on my residence room floor, as I researched but put off writing until the very last minute, ultimately pulling all-nighters and submitting half-baked ideas. I think that’s why I’m sympathetic to anxious students and perhaps why, in the dark, middle days of the pandemic, I devised a way to make the graduate writing group techniques of freewriting, goal-setting, and timed writing useful for undergraduates. I called these “writing retreats,” students greeted them with enthusiasm, and our writing centre is still offering them regularly.
The goal is for students to make progress on an assignment, learn practical techniques for productive writing, and have a positive experience related to academic writing.
portrait by Sarah’s daughter
Writing retreats follow the same process-oriented and supportive approach to writing as one-to-one consultations, while a focus on actually writing during a retreat, combined with the reassuring presence of other students, creates a useful complement to individual consultations. Importantly from an administrator’s perspective, they can be offered to large groups of students. Also, like York University Writing Centre’s pizza-and-academic-writing combo described last spring by Stevie Bell, the fact that they creatively combine familiar elements makes them relatively easy for other writing centre practitioners to adapt.
Our undergraduate writing retreats are structured, online work sessions held for large courses in which students have at least one significant writing assignment. Disciplines in which they’ve been offered repeatedly include Biology, English, Geography, Media Studies, Political Science—the list goes on. The goal is for students to make progress on an assignment, learn practical techniques for productive writing, and have a positive experience related to academic writing. We do this by creating a supportive environment, breaking down an assignment into manageable steps, offering a structured goal setting and writing time, and encouraging students to use the chat to ask questions as they work.
“I enjoyed how stress free and relaxing this was. Sometimes I panic during writing, and I didn’t feel that way during the retreat.” – writing retreat attendee
Positive feelings, positive results
The result, I like to think, is more than just a productive work session, although productive work is included. Student feedback gives a clue to what is special:
- “I really enjoyed the techniques displayed and how I felt as though I was working with others. I feel more prepared and less stressed and even excited for this project now.”
- “I was able to feel motivated about writing. Seeing others working on it & seeing others at the same stage of writing the assignment made me feel at ease.”
- “It was easier to focus with everyone working on the same thing (just as was mentioned, funnily enough). I also really like the idea of a ‘retreat’… the atmosphere was calm and it made the assignment seem less like work.”
- “I enjoyed how stress free and relaxing this was. Sometimes I panic during writing, and I didn’t feel that way during the retreat.”
Notice that all these comments reference positive feelings associated with the retreat, and many allude to negative states by drawing attention to the fact that the retreat was “calm” and “stress free.” I’ve come to believe that the retreats are an intervention in affect. We deliberately address the anxiety, uncertainty, lack of confidence, and other hard-to-describe feelings that often produce procrastination, while simultaneously building a sense of self-efficacy. We normalize the idea that academic writing is difficult, while also breaking a particular task down, so it feels more manageable and hence less stressful.
In my most optimistic moods, I see retreats as an intervention in the cycle of negative thoughts and feelings around academic writing that leads students to say, “I’m not a good writer,” to ghost a course around assignment time, or to use Generative AI indiscriminately because anything is better than actually facing the writing process.
Six stages of the writing retreat
If you’re interested in knowing more, here are the details of each of the six stages of our retreats, illustrated by slides and examples from a first-year Sociology retreat.
Stage 1: Welcome, check-in, and community creation.
Students Zoom in, and our first task is to establish a welcoming, positive, comfortable, and non-judgmental online work environment. We invite students to say hello in the chat and try to get them to contribute something—maybe it’s the answer to an icebreaker question; maybe it’s what they are bringing as a “treat” to the “retreat.” Not surprisingly, most student treats involve chocolate, salt or caffeine, but sometimes the presence of an animal, live or stuffed, also counts as a treat. Retreat slides are informal and often include cartoons or memes. We want the space to be public enough so students are aware that they are surrounded by other real people, and comfortable enough so they can relax and concentrate.
In order to get a feel for the group, I like to ask students what stage they are at with their assignment. If it’s a small group, I ask students to speak or put in the chat what they are working on. If it’s a larger group, I do a poll with two questions:
- What stage are you at in the writing process?
- How confident are you in your ability to complete the assignment successfully?
For Question 1, I always include “haven’t started yet” as an option—there will almost certainly be multiple students in this category, and I want them to know that it is okay. It’s important to remember that the biggest benefit of retreats may be for students who avoid writing. Normalizing having not started yet helps students in that situation feel like they belong and increases the chance that they will use the time productively. Students often comment about this in the feedback, saying things like, “It was nice to see that other people were just as lost as I was, felt reassuring.” Question 2, about confidence, takes the emotional temperature of the room and helps me know whether to amp up the reassurance and clarify the assignment, or focus on strategies for the challenging parts of the assignment.
After the icebreaker and check-in, I lay out the goals and retreat structure so students know exactly what to expect, and then we move onto the freewrite.
I’m interested in positive psychology, so I’ll often invite students to write about something they are proud of, or to imagine they are doing something they are good at and write about how it feels in their body.
Stage 2: Warm-up freewrite.
This is just what it sounds like—a playful writing and thinking warm-up on a neutral, non-academic topic to get the writing juices flowing. The facilitator will “remind” students what freewriting is, then offer a prompt. Using this prompt, they freewrite for 2-3 minutes.
Prompts are not academic, but beyond that each retreat facilitator approaches prompts a little differently. I’m interested in positive psychology, so I’ll often invite students to write about something they are proud of, or to imagine they are doing something they are good at and write about how it feels in their body. A facilitator who is an artist or creative writing might bring in images or ask for associations—whatever works for you.
The most important element is that the freewrite relaxes students. This student comment captures it perfectly:
I liked the freewrite section because it gave me a chance to get my brain working. Especially since it was not on something related to the assignment, and it was anything I wanted it to be, I was able to do it (if it was something based on the assignment it would have been overwhelming). It made me feel more motivated to move to the next steps.
Stage 3: Project advice and keep it short.
The trick with this section is to keep it short—this is not a full workshop or lecture so I aim for ten minutes and never go longer than fifteen, I also tailor it to where the least focused students in the room will be at in the writing process—i.e., usually at or near the beginning. I like to start by reviewing the assignment from the writing instructor perspective, identifying goals, main elements, and what aspects I think will be particularly challenging. Sometimes I consult with the instructor about what advice they might need emphasized. I offer some strategies and resources to address possible challenges.
Then I break the assignment up into steps, usually giving some detail on the early steps, where most students will be, and less detail about revising and editing. These steps help students locate themselves and start thinking about what they might work on in the retreat. If I know students just had a midterm, for example, I might anticipate that most students won’t have started work on their assignment yet. In this case, I might break the beginning of their assignment into micro-steps and present these as possible activities, for example:
- Read assignment instructions carefully, highlighting key words.
- Identify two possible topics, and freewrite about what you know about each one.
- Brainstorm key words for your library search, then start the search.
The goal of this section is not to tell students everything they need to know to complete the assignment but to grease the slide into working. Particularly for students who are anxious or procrastinating, offering specific and achievable tasks eases them into setting their goal and getting started. Students often acknowledge this, saying things like, “breaking down the process makes the assignment much less daunting.”
Stage 4: Set goals.
This is when I ask the question: “What are you going to work on in the retreat?,” and I invite students to write their response down, whether publicly in the chat, or privately on a post-it note or at the top of their page. I might reference SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely) goals for those who are familiar with them and encourage students to be specific, but it’s important not to add stress or trigger perfectionist tendencies. Maybe a student won’t complete their goal in the retreat, but if they get started, they’re more likely to continue after the retreat.
Students often value this section highly. Comments include: “I enjoyed the goal making process. It was motivating me to get the work done,” and “I enjoyed the goal setting and really planning out what steps we should be taking when writing this essay. It helped me feel more relaxed when working on this assignment.”
Stage 5: Everyone works.
This is the core of the retreat: I set a timer and invite everyone to settle down to work. As a facilitator, this is where you cede control, trust the students, and, more importantly, trust the container you’ve set to hold students, so they can get to work. Fair warning: this can be hard to do the first time!
During the work period, students can ask questions in the chat, including sharing a research question or draft thesis and getting feedback. With some groups the chat is hard to keep up with and with others the chat box sits empty. Sometimes if the retreat is also attended by a course TA, an embedded tutor, or a subject librarian, they open a breakout room where students can ask questions aloud without disturbing the working group. The beauty of this public opportunity to ask a question or get some feedback is that other students can observe and learn vicariously, and they do, commenting:
- “I enjoyed seeing other people’s questions and learning from the TA’s answers.”
- “I enjoyed looking at people’s comments and questions. They gave me ideas.”
- “I came into this meet not really knowing how to go about/continue the assignment, and not really knowing what to ask to clarify my confusion, but others were struggling with similar things I was struggling with, so I was able to read responses from you guys, and it really helped clear up the confusion I had.”
We adapt the writing time to the length of the retreat. If we have a longer time—e.g., 90 minutes—I try to fit in two twenty-minute work periods with a five-minute break, but it depends on the time available. Students offer lots of feedback on the writing time, including:
- “I really enjoyed the fact that we were all writing at the same time and working together/independently. It helped me focus, and I will surely be using timers for my assignments.”
Stage 6: Check-in and reflection.
After the timer for the final work period has rung, I invite students to share something in the chat about how their work period went and what progress they made. If I did a poll at the beginning, I’ll put up the same questions again. So far, polls have always shown that, overall, the group has moved forward and confidence levels have increased, reinforcing the belief that the retreat has been time well spent.
At the end of the retreat, I take a few minutes to remind students about writing tutoring, online writing resources, and other available programming. I also point out that the techniques we use in the retreat, including freewriting, goal-setting, and timed writing, are practices students can use on their own.
If I have sensed, through poll responses or questions, a high degree of anxiety among students in the retreat, I’ll post in the chat a list of resources and links students can use to access support. This includes both the university’s Health and Wellness service but goes well beyond, including specific supports for postsecondary students and for different communities.
After the retreat, I follow up with the instructor. Because retreats are organized for a course, and attendance is almost always incentivized by a small bonus mark, (as little as 2% on the assignment makes a difference), students know attendance will be reported back. When less than 50% of students in a class are at the retreat, which is most of the time, I record the Advice section, explaining to students I will be sharing only this section with their instructor, who can then post it for the whole class. In my email follow-up to the instructor, I’ll often describe where the majority of students are at with the assignment, summarize the kinds of questions students asked, and add whatever else I observed about how students are engaging with the assignment. If the chat was very busy, I might ask a work-study student to organize and edit it into an anonymous FAQs sheet that I can also send the instructor to post. Following up with the instructor allows me to share anything I learned during the retreat that might be useful for them to know and is also good for building an ongoing connection.
They in no way replicate or replace a one-to-one consultation, but they complement it beautifully. They allow us to scale up the student-focused, process-based approach to writing and are a great introduction to the writing centre.
Planning for group of various sizes
After four years, we’ve run retreats with anywhere from 5 to 140 students, and the same six steps work well. For smaller groups of less than twenty students, a nice tweak is to use a Google sheet for attendance, then ask students to use it not just to sign in but also as a worksheet. They can put their retreat goals, what they worked on, and any questions or concerns, directly onto the sheet.
For groups of 50 students or more, the most important thing is to have co-facilitators, who could be student volunteers, writing peers, TAs, or instructors. Students can help let folks into the Zoom room, address procedural questions, explain the retreat to latecomers, etc. They can also share links, draw attention to unanswered chat questions, and keep the facilitator on track. If I have a keen work-study student, I invite them to lead the icebreaker, which increases the sense that this is a student space. Course TAs are also excellent co-facilitators, as they can answer questions in the chat with authority, and the retreats give them a direct sense of where students are at with the assignment. Sometimes an experienced TA will add a slide of advice from their perspective, which students appreciate. TAs can also run breakout groups, and, occasionally, I’ve even asked them to meet directly with a student who needed individual attention.
Slide 10 is based on an assignment developed by course instructor Dr. Kathy Liddle. Slides 11 & 12 are created by course TA Dr. Bahar Hashemi
We’ve worked out (most of) the kinks
So, there you have the details of our online, course-based undergraduate writing retreats. They are based on practices that graduate writing groups have been using for years, and we’ve simply put them together in a framework that makes them accessible for undergraduates. From the writing centre director perspective, they are a flexible model that is relatively simple to adapt from one course to the next. They in no way replicate or replace a one-to-one consultation, but they complement it beautifully. They allow us to scale up the student-focused, process-based approach to writing and are a great introduction to the writing centre.
From the student perspective, writing retreats are positive, motivating and productive writing experiences that reduce stress and anxiety and promote calm, focused attention. They promote mutual support, allow a lot of information to be shared, and normalize constructive conversation about work in progress.
It’s true that they don’t work for everybody. I have had students comment, “I did not get much out of it. I did enjoy the fun free writing tho,” and also “what exactly were we supposed to learn in the retreat?” Fair enough. But it seems notable to me that many students do find them valuable, and for a range of reasons.
I’ve given lots of detail on our retreats because we’ve worked out some of the kinks, and I want to save work for others. But the most important takeaway is a reminder to all of us that anxiety and confusion play a big role for students around academic writing and help-seeking. While feeling confused and/or anxious may lead some students to seek help by coming to the writing centre, they are equally likely to stop a student from reaching out at all. A course-based activity like a retreat, where students get a small bonus mark for attending, normalizes and incentivizes help-seeking. If the retreat itself is useful, it rewards the behaviour further. Helping them to get clarity on assignment expectations, and to take that first step into working and writing, can move them out of the inertia of anxiety and stress. The calming effect of the retreat allows them to draw on their existing knowledge and skills in figuring things out. And a positive experience with the writing retreats means the next time they are stressed about writing, maybe they’ll try freewriting or breaking down their assignment into small steps.
And maybe, just maybe, they’ll come in for a one-to-one session.
Many thanks to the UTSC colleagues and students who have contributed to the ongoing development of UTSC’s writing retreats. There’s a lot of “I” in this post but I don’t do this alone. Retreats wouldn’t exist without you.