Thanks to Jo Wallinger and Sai Bangera for sharing their experiences in this blogpost.
Writing academic papers for peer reviewed journals may be a new and somewhat bewildering experience for many aspiring clinical academic speech and language therapists, and other allied health professionals. There are many challenges in integrating the data collected into a complete, and scientific manuscript that tells a clear story and gives a justifiable representation of the results.
Reading various academic papers does not necessarily translate into writing one, and producing a manuscript from scratch is a bit of a mystery, at first. Working from home can often feel lonely and overwhelming, as the enormity of this unfamiliar task is quite daunting.
Faced with struggles on our manuscripts, we decided to experiment with a week-long virtual writing retreat. Initially, we thought about an actual writing retreat but it was too difficult and expensive to organise in the short time frame that we had (i.e. May half-term break).
So, having identified that we could benefit from a structured, dedicated and supportive approach within a specified period of time, we hit upon the notion of having our retreat online, when it suited us, and from the comfort of our respective homes. With the benefits of no costs, no travel, no resources to carry around, and everything we needed including plenty of “chai” on tap, it seemed like a perfect solution!
On Day 1, we realised we had no plan to start with. But, we took solace in the fact that we had worked together on a research project and some of our MSc modules had overlapped so we knew how each other worked (and suffered) and crucially, we shared similar levels of motivation. Soon enough, we put our heads together and came up with a plan to structure our sessions as described below:
• Quick FaceTime session at 9am to set goals and duration of tasks.
• At agreed time, FaceTime again to discuss feedback, progress/difficulties, highlight the positives and problem solve.
• Agree on length of next session and break.
• Aim for three to four 1.5 to 2 hour sessions per day.
• Have a full hour for lunch.
• End our writing sessions by 5pm.
We found that our #VirtualWritingRetreat was such a simple, effective, and valuable way to approach the humungous task of writing an academic paper.
We both completed large pieces of work in a short span of eight days, almost finalising the drafts of our manuscripts, which was very rewarding. This concerted effort really helped to break down the tasks into manageable chunks, make effective use of time and problem solve through discussions and feedback on FaceTime.
As we shared the joys and pains of academic writing during our retreat, we also realised that this experience resulted in a change in mind-set – what felt overwhelming when we embarked on this journey, didn’t feel like that anymore! The structure and discipline (i.e. aiming for clear and well-defined goals within a specific timeframe) has been maintained over time, as we continue to work on other academic papers.
As we look back, we feel that a good match in a writing partner essentially paved the path towards overcoming struggles and resolving difficulties. The constant support and words of encouragement helped us to remain focussed. Opportunities to justify actions and time spent for specific tasks resulted in a rational and critical approach in academic writing. Taking regular “chai and chat” breaks worked like magic to keep the momentum going.
We are very grateful for all the support we received from our mentors and colleagues; and it was their feedback that shaped our writing. Receiving encouraging comments from speech and language therapists on Twitter was also incredibly helpful and reassuring. Our confidence levels in writing, and presenting our research work, has grown in leaps and bounds – but there is so much more to learn.
We do hope to continue on our academic writing journeys through more #VirtualWritingRetreats. If this blog resonates with you and if you would like to join us, please do get in touch. We look forward to hearing from you.