Academic Writing Productivity - Faculty Peer Support Group

"What did you do last week? What will you do next week?”

These are the questions Assistant Professor Nicholas Harrigan from the School of Social Sciences (SOSS) asks each time he meets members of the Academic Writing Group (AWG). 

Many academics find it difficult to attend to the task of academic writing. Other pressures, such as teaching, marking, student consultations, meetings, and other administrative tasks call for their attention. On top of that, academic writing is often difficult. It requires time, effort, and patience. Yet all young academics know that the most important component of their career advancement is their academic publications. This produces anxiety and stress. Often procrastination is the result, followed by periods of binge writing, although the best academic writing comes from regular application, say writing one hour, even 15 mins a day.

The Academic Writing Group hopes that by sharing reports on work done each week, they can instill the practice of regular writing. Assistant Professors Ijlal Naqvi, Nicholas Harrigan, and Serena Wee organised the inaugural session of AWG four months ago so that they could have a forum to meet weekly and encourage more healthy writing habits.

Since this time the group has grown to seven including one Associate Professor. They meet every Friday evening for about half hour at SOSS’ faculty lounge or report to peers via email.

“The aim of the academic writing group is to improve our productivity as academics – basically to act as a support group to encourage each other to write more and try to write approximately one article every three months,” shared Prof Harrigan. AWG takes a two-pronged approach to improving productivity. The first and crucial part is to encourage daily writing, by setting weekly goals. At each meeting, the members will answer two key questions: (1) what they achieved last week, and (2) what they will do next week. The second part is the conversations that flow about how they conduct their research, how they develop their research papers, and how they manage their teaching loads.

He added, “Writing can be tough and demoralising. It is pivotal for a group to have the structure that we have – what have you achieved the past week and what will you do in the next week? 90% of the productivity gained would be lost if a group did not have that structure. We are similar to ‘writers anonymous’.”

One of the members, Assistant Professor Nafis Hanif from SOSS shared her experience.

“I find attending the group beneficial. As a faculty who is new to the academic position, I am easily immersed in lesson planning, student projects, marking of scripts and administrative matters. This group reminds me to make time for my own writing, publications and research. Each session reminds me of the tasks I have committed to in the previous week and what I will be committed to in the following week. Every week, I see myself moving bit by bit. Eventually, it’s a good feeling when the paper gets done.”

The Academic Writing Group welcomes faculty across SMU to join the group. Interested faculty may email Assistant Professor Nicholas Harrigan at nharrigan [at] smu.edu.sg.

AWG Session Details