This term’s PGR Masterclass will be run by Is Andrews, a freelance editor and writing consultant, and Honorary Associate Professor at the Warwick Law School. Is has worked with the department as an editor and proofreader for a number of years. Many of you will have worked with her on draft chapters and will have drawn on her expertise for proofreading and other writing-related skills. The PGR Masterclass will be focused on academic writing strategies and technique. It will also involve the workshopping of PGR students’ written work. The PGR Masterclass is open to all PGRs at any stage of their research.

The workshop has three aims:

1. To facilitate a discussion amongst PGRs on the nature and challenges of academic writing. The group will be invited to share and reflect on their own writing strategies and to talk through common issues and concerns: writer’s block, imposter syndrome, finding your own voice, questions of tone, structuring your work etc.
2. To de-mystify writing technique. Is will introduce the group to a ‘writing checklist’, drawn from her own experience of working with PhD students and Early Career Researchers. This will provide a guide to some of the technical aspects of academic writing, and will introduce some of the tools available to help improve and manage your written work.
3. To read and discuss work written by fellow PGR students. We will read the introductions to 3-4 pieces. This means we’ll need some volunteers! The written material could be the introduction to a chapter of your thesis, a book chapter, or a journal article that you are currently working on. The written work could be largely complete or at a very early stage of drafting. The aim of this aspect of the workshop is to (a) give some practical feedback to the authors on their work in terms of technical writing skills (not the content of your argument); and (b) to reflect, more broadly, on why introductions are so important for academic writing and to home in on what makes for an effective and engaging introduction to an academic text.

If you would like to submit some work for discussion during the workshop, please email me (Daniel.matthews@warwick.ac.ukLink opens in a new window) and indicate the nature of the work you plan to submit for the workshop; i.e. is it an article, a thesis chapter, how well developed is this likely to be at the time of the workshop etc. Please let me know if you want to submit some work for discussion by Friday 1^st November.