Our lab hosts a bi-weekly writing group to facilitate peer writing, editing, and feedback. The structure of the writing group is based off of the WEEL framework and the code for randomization was written by Alec Robitaille.
Structure: Hosted it every two weeks (date/time determined each semester based on student availability). Writing is submitted to the appropriately labelled folder in the ZULE Google Drive/Writing Group/ . We submit a piece of writing ~ 3 business days before our scheduled meeting. Then, the meeting host will send out an email assigning one-two reviewer(s) per piece of writing. The reviewers have those ~ 3 business days to review the piece of writing, comment on it, and put their commented version back in the shared folder. During the meeting, we all meet and discuss our reviews.
Guidelines:
- When submitting, try to leave a comment at the top of the piece of writing that includes intended audience, what kind of feedback you are looking for, and any other context you think is important.
- Generally, we would try to keep the piece of writing pretty short so that this doesn't take up too much of the reviewers' time. There is no minimum to the amount of writing - could be a figure + figure caption, abstract, etc. but it should be max 4 pages double-spaced (about the length of an intro or discussion).
- Reviewing is a skill! Try to approach your reviews from a kind and constructive mindset, if there is something you think can be improved then suggest that and potential solutions (instead of just saying something like "this is bad"). We love a compliment sandwich!
- If you have nothing to submit certain weeks but still want to participate, you can always review other people's work without submitting (although it is always encouraged for people to submit as early as possible - the benefit of writing group is getting feedback at every stage of writing!)
- It is okay to be intimidated the first few times! But after the first couple of times, the nerves go away and it is SO helpful.
- If you aren't sure how to start, all the previous weeks of submissions + reviews can be found in the same Google Drive folder. Feel free to peruse!
Benefits:
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Having a consistent deadline to turn in something (anything!) will just simply get stuff done. It may feel like nothing, because sometimes you just write something to meet the deadline (e.g. half of a methods section, an abstract for something you aren't done yet, a figure caption for a theoretical figure). But just the act of writing is practicing that muscle and when it actually comes to the writing part of your degree, you will find that your writing muscles are toned and ready! In addition, I often find myself going back to those "nothing" writing projects and pulling out key sentences/paragraphs months later.
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Reviewing skills. Reviewing people's work becomes really important as a coauthor, mentor, TA, etc. and being a good reviewer is nearly as hard (maybe harder sometimes) as being a good writer. Practicing how to give good, helpful feedback in a low stakes environment will mean that when it comes to something more important, like your first peer-review, you will feel way more confident in your abilities. It also just makes you a better person to work with.
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You are getting peer-reviewed all the time! By submitting work to writing group, you are getting the experience that some people only get from their supervisor/journals. You get peer-reviewed criticism on every part of your thesis, multiple times. This is just going to make your thesis and papers that much stronger when it is time for external reviews.