SWS for Graduate Writers

Why graduate writers benefit from Student Writing Support

Writers don’t have to be alone to be productive. Although completing a graduate seminar paper, thesis, or dissertation requires focused, sustained individual work, the writing process is emphatically not a solitary one. Because much of what they write has a life outside the narrow confines of the degree program, graduate writers need feedback from multiple readers in order to make informed decisions about how they can best communicate their ideas in writing. Student Writing Support is a safe, responsive environment in which graduate writers can develop and test their ideas with non-specialist but highly trained and interested readers.

To check availability, learn about our consultants, and make an appointment, log in at mySWS.

As experienced readers of dissertations and seminar papers, writing consultants can help you become more confident and energized about your writing, or smooth your return to writing after time away from academia. As nonevaluative readers and responders, our consultants will not proofread your text for you, substitute for your advisor, tell you what your advisor wants, evaluate your work, or guarantee a particular grade or outcome for your writing.

As a graduate student, you might work with a writing consultant to

  • Hear how another reader understands what you’ve written, and determine what might need more framing or explanation
  • Figure out what you want to say, or how to put in writing what you already know you want to say
  • Organize your many thoughts and ideas
  • Build timelines, goals, and accountability into your long writing projects
  • Make decisions about revision in light of your advisor’s (or advisors’) comments, and develop questions for your readers
  • Interpret what an assignment is asking
  • Imagine a conference audience
  • Learn how to proofread your own work
  • Connect with research and writing resources

Our consultants come from departments across the University, and all of them continually engage in professional development activities as part of their work at the Center. We have consultants who specialize in working with multilingual writers (look for “Multilingual Learner Specialists” on our website) and consultants who have experience with writing in specific genres and disciplines. 

You can meet with a consultant face-to-face at 216 Pillsbury Drive or Appleby Hall; while almost all of our consultants work in both spaces, which location you choose depends on your goals. At Appleby Hall, consultants hold face-to-face sessions on a first-come, first-served basis, which can be especially useful when you have an isolated question, idea, or task. Graduate students find our 216 Pillsbury Dr location, which operates primarily by appointment, especially useful when they wish to develop ongoing working relationships with one or more consultants.

Our SWS.chat consultations, which involve an asynchronous consultant response followed by a synchronous online chat, are especially productive for graduate students. During the initial submission of their document, they must use writing to contextualize their ideas and explain how the excerpt they are submitting fits into their larger project—both strategies that all graduate-level writers must employ with their many audiences. Later, in the chat itself, they often find that they write their way into an understanding of what they really want to say or how they want to say it. That thought process (and the outcome) are preserved in a written transcript available to them online at any time.

 

SWS resources for graduate students

To learn more about what to expect and how to get the most from your visit to the Center, review our:

Graduate students may be especially interested in our quicktips on getting the most from a writing grouppaper cohesion and flow, and editing and proofreading strategies, as well as our common writing projects resources, which includes helpful materials for writing literature reviews and grant proposals.

For workshops, online resources, and individual consultations on any aspect of teaching with writing, from syllabus design to grading, visit our Teaching With Writing program.

Dissertation Calculator
This online tool from the University of Minnesota helps students navigate the process of writing a dissertation. The Dissertation Calculator breaks down the process into manageable stages with suggested deadlines, and provides students with important resources and advice tailored to the University context. (This tool was created by the Center for Writing in partnership with the University Libraries, the Center for Teaching and Learning Services, and the Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy.)

Formatting Your Dissertation in Word
From the UMN Libraries, this website includes written tutorials on formatting your dissertation in MS Word.

What's a Scholarly Workflow—and Why Do I Want One?
This blog entry offers suggestions about how to manage and process all of the information scholars acquire.

Writing Thesis, Dissertation, and Conference Proposals
From the Graduate Writing Center at Penn State, this PDF breaks down the purpose and sections of a proposal for thesis or dissertation research; it also offers strategies and a sample conference proposal.

Writing and Presenting Your Thesis Or Dissertation
This comprehensive guide from Michigan State’s Dr. S. Joseph Levine offers both practical and comforting advice to make the process of writing a dissertation—from preparing to write the proposal to writing the dissertation itself to handling the defense—more manageable, and even (on one’s best days) exciting.

How to Organize Your Thesis
This advice from Carleton University (Ottawa) computer science professor John W. Chinneck is widely generalizable across the disciplines. Not only does Chinneck offer a clear basic outline for a dissertation, but he helps writers conceptualize the project of a dissertation in the first place (see section entitled “What Graduate Research Is All About”).

Academic and Career Development Workshops
From the U of MN Graduate School, workshops on career planning and networking; writing résumés, CVs, and cover letters; interviewing for jobs; and seeking both academic and non-academic employment.

CVs, Cover Letters, and Teaching Portfolios (pdf)
From Stanford University, brief advice on the academic job application process followed by a rich collection of sample CVs from the Humanities, Education, and Science/Engineering, along with sample cover letters for jobs and postdocs.

Dr. Karen's Rules of the Academic CV
One blogger's detailed set of expectations for printed CVs.

Cover Letters for Academic Positions (pdf)
Advice and two sample cover letters for academic faculty positions, courtesy of the Graduate College at the University of Illinois.

Research Statement
This advice on writing the research statement from University of Pennsylvania Career Services includes the statement's purpose, a timeline for writing it, examples, and further resources.

Dr. Karen's Rules of the Research Statement
This blogger offers very specific advice about writing the research statement.

Career Resources for UMN Graduate Students
A handout about resources at the U for graduate students.

Academic and Professional Development
Links to internal and external resources for graduate students and postdoctoral trainees from the University of Minnesota Graduate School.

Graduate Student Advising
Resources from the Dignity Project of the University of Minnesota Student Conflict Resolution Center. Includes documents featuring Graduate Student Rights and best and worst practices for graduate student advising.

 

What graduate students are saying about SWS

  • I was really stuck before I got to the Center. On my bus ride home, I was writing furiously on scrap paper—one page then two pages then three before I got to my stop. This session really got the juices flowing again. Thanks.
  • I am so grateful for my writing consultant’s enthusiasm, insight, motivational support, interest in my thesis project, and constant optimism. She has helped me sort out critical aspects of my planning.
  • What a great opportunity to work through these ideas. New insights came to me. My consultant is helping me to connect the tissue and give some coherence to this mess. She is interested and responsive, which really helps a dissertation writer who struggles to imagine his audience.
  • I was amazed at the suggestions I received from my consultant. She was able to look past my obtuse engineering subject matter and communicate when I was being clear or unclear. She could then describe the reasons why some things were either clear or unclear. I feel that
  • I gained tremendously by the contrasts she drew in my writing.
    My consultant made my dissertation seem exciting and even worth pouring my soul into. She helped me to build, organize, and feel good about my ideas. I left with a cool map to follow during my next week of writing.
  • Thank you for being willing to help graduate students. Writing a dissertation has been a lonely and confusing process. I was so grateful to be able to talk to someone about my work and get help with it.

 

The above statements come from anonymous student surveys.