Graduate Writing Group
A writing space for grad students
While the University’s buildings are closed in response to COVID-19, Graduate Writing Groups have gone remote, but continue to run. If you are already registered, please be in touch with your grad mentor for details.
Are you a graduate student determined to write and defend your dissertation before your funding package expires?
Do you find it difficult to maintain a consistent writing schedule? Would you like to commit to writing regularly?
Join a community of peers who share your experience and can help keep you accountable.
Contents
How it works
Groups of ten graduate students, with the support of a Learning Strategist and graduate mentor, provide a small, informal and encouraging atmosphere for you to focus on your work and discuss your writing goals.
Register, attend, share, write!
Schedule: Winter 2020
There is limited space available in the groups and your peers need you to be there for accountability and support, so register only for groups (MAXIMUM 3) you can commit to attending each week.
The following groups are still accepting registration.
Monday mornings
- Time: 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
- Place: Ivey Library (New College Library), 20 Wilcocks Street, downstairs workroom
- Facilitator: Christine
Monday afternoons
- Time: 1:30 – 4 p.m.
- Place: OISE, Room 12-202
- Facilitator: Sandra
Tuesday mornings
- Time: 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
- Place: 208 Bloor St. W., 3rd Floor Commitee Room – all registered participants must sign in at front desk
- Facilitator: Jen
Tuesday afternoons
- Time: 1:30 – 4 p.m.
- Place: OISE, Room 12-202
- Facilitator: Maria
Tuesday evenings
- Time: 5 – 7:30 p.m.
- Place: First Nations House, 563 Spadina Avenue, 3rd Floor Lounge
- Facilitator: Bonnie Jane
Wednesday afternoons
- Time: 12 – 2:30 p.m.
- Place: Jackman Humanities Building, 262 Bloor Street West, Room 213
- Facilitator: Christine
Thursday afternoons
- Time: 1:30 – 4 p.m.
- Place: Student Success Centre, 214 College Street, Meeting Room 5
- Facilitator: Keshna
Friday mornings
- Time: 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
- Place: UTGSU Building, 16 Bancroft Avenue, GradLoft
- Facilitator: Keshna
Saturday mornings
- Time: 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
- Place: Grad Room, 66 Harbord Street, lower level
- Facilitator: Maria
Sunday afternoons
- Time: 1:30 – 4 p.m.
- Place: Grad Room, 66 Harbord Street, lower Level
- Facilitator: Jen and Sandra will alternate
Registration
To register, contact Grad Writing Group, Academic Success at gwg@utoronto.ca.
Grad Mentor Bio
Maria Dasios
PhD Candidate, Department for the Study of Religion
Favorite writing quote: "I’ve had the same editor since 1967. Many times he has said to me over the years or asked me, Why would you use a semicolon instead of a colon? And many times over the years I have said to him things like: I will never speak to you again. Forever. Goodbye. That is it. Thank you very much. And I leave. Then I read the piece and I think of his suggestions. I send him a telegram that says, OK, so you’re right. So what? Don’t ever mention this to me again.” – Maya Angelou
Favorite non-writing activity: Reading (in print or digitally, silently or aloud, alone or with others, & especially with my kids); outings of all kinds (parks, museums, libraries & coffee shops on rotation)
Day & time of my group: Tuesdays 1:30 – 4 p.m. and Saturdays 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Grad Mentor Bio
Jen Marshall
PhD Candidate, Pharmaceutical Sciences (Collaborative Bioethics)
Favorite writing quote: "Writing is a small door. Sometimes fantasies, like big pieces of furniture, won't come through." – Susan Sontag
Favorite non-writing activity: Biking, skating, birds, ukelele
Day & time of my group: Tuesdays 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Grad Mentor Bio
Sandy Noel
Ph.D. student, Women and Gender Studies Institute (WGSI)
Favorite writing quote: "Writing is really a way of thinking—not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet." – Toni Morrison
Favorite non-writing activity: Attending cycle fit/spin classes, followed by a few laps of swimming.
Grad Mentor Bio
Keshna Sood
PhD Candidate, Molecular Genetics Department, Faculty of Medicine
Favorite writing quote: "It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance." – Steven Pressfield
Favorite non-writing activity: Yoga
Day & time of my group: Thursdays 1:30 – 4 p.m.
Grad Mentor Bio
Christine Kwong
PhD Candidate, Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development
Favorite writing quotes:
For fiction: “We write to taste life twice, in the moment, and in retrospect” - Anais Nin
For manuscripts/dissertations: "It doesn’t matter if it is good now, it just needs to exist” - Kurt Vonnegut
Favorite non-writing activity: Aerial silks, hoop and trapeze
Grad Mentor Bio
Bonnie Jane Maracle
Learning Strategist, First Nations House and Academic Success
Favourite writing quote: "...just 15 minutes a day!"
In partnership with:
Graduate Writing Groups are presented in partnership with the University of Toronto Graduate Students' Union (UTGSU).
