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. Continue reading “Support for anxious writers: The six stages of an undergraduate online writing retreat” →