Writing Clubs: Promoting Productivity and Quality

Greetings again. I hope 2017 has started well for you.

At the start of a new year, many people set goals for themselves. For researchers, these goals often include writing more or writing better. One way to promote productivity and quality in writing is to join—or start—a writing club.

A writing club consists of people who meet periodically to discuss their writing. The club may meet in person, electronically, or both. And it may focus on the writing process, the writing product, or both.

Writing clubs can have one or more functions. One common function is to supply psychological support during the writing process. Another common function is to promote accountability, and thus productivity, by having members report on their progress. A third common function is to provide feedback on drafts.

Various types of writing clubs exist. Among them are the following:

• clubs largely providing feedback on drafts
• clubs in which members mainly report on their progress and discuss ways to overcome barriers to their writing
• clubs in which the members write during meetings
• clubs that are combinations of these types

Two presentations about writing clubs now appear in the AuthorAID Resource Library. One of these presentations describes the writing club program at the University of Colombo Faculty of Medicine.

The other presentation deals more generally with writing clubs. In addition to including information similar to that in this blog post, it lists questions to consider when starting a writing club.

Have you participated in a writing club? Do you have questions about writing clubs? In either case, I encourage you to submit a comment.

Until the next post—

Barbara