Writing Place Online
Available for Evanston and Chicago Campus students, faculty, and staff
The Writing Place is always available for online appointments. Using a combination of Zoom and Google Docs. If you have not yet created your Northwestern Zoom account and downloaded the zoom app, go to the Northwestern Zoom site. Click the log in button to create your account. Go back to that page and click the “download client” link to install Zoom on your computer.
Make an Online Appointment
Writing Place Locations in Evanston
The Graduate Writing Place, Address: 555 Clark Street, Second Floor, Room 2-206
The Graduate Writing Place serves graduate students from all across Northwestern’s many schools, departments, and programs, as well as postdoctoral students and Northwestern faculty. Clients may book appointments for individual writing consultations with Graduate Writing Fellows (PhD candidates at Northwestern) to review a variety of writing, including papers for coursework; conference papers and presentations; journal articles and manuscripts for publication; dissertation proposals and chapters; and materials pertaining to the academic and non-academic job markets.
The Main Library Writing Place, Address: Main Library, Second Floor, North Tower, Room 2305
The Main Writing Place in the University Library focuses on working with undergraduates; however, all students, faculty, and staff are welcome to use this location. Peer tutors are juniors, seniors, and graduate students. This quarter, all Writing Place consultations will be held online only. The Main Library Writing Place does not offer asynchronous e-tutoring.
For directions to the library the library, look on the Northwestern Campus Map or see the Northwestern Library’s page of maps and directions.
One-on-One Appointments
The Graduate Writing Place serves graduate students from all across Northwestern’s many schools, departments, and programs, as well as postdoctoral students and Northwestern faculty. Clients may book appointments for individual writing consultations with Graduate Writing Fellows (PhD candidates at Northwestern) to review a variety of writing, including papers for coursework; conference papers and presentations; journal articles and manuscripts for publication; dissertation proposals and chapters; and materials pertaining to the academic and non-academic job markets.
Graduate students, post-docs, and faculty working on any type of writing may also book appointments to meet with undergraduate student writing consultants at the Main Library Writing Place. Any of our consultants will engage you in conversation and provide guidance on your writing.
For more information about the specific types of appointments offered in each location, please see the locations tab.
Interdisciplinary Writing Groups
The Graduate Writing Place runs a number of Interdisciplinary Writing Groups for PhD students who have already completed their coursework. We are currently accepting applications to earn a spot in one of these groups in spring 2025. Applications are due on Tuesday, March 11.
Interdisciplinary Writing Groups are comprised of Northwestern PhD students who meet for two hours on a weekly basis to discuss and provide feedback on their own and fellow group members’ writing and writing processes. Groups are comprised of 5-6 members, and while no group contains more than one student from a single department/program, each group will be comprised of members who share either a qualitative or quantitative research focus. The groups are facilitated by Graduate Writing Fellows—advanced PhD Candidates from across the university.
Interdisciplinary Writing Groups are supported by The Graduate School.
Graduate Writing Workshops
The Graduate Writing Place offers a series of 90-minute graduate writing workshops throughout the academic year. The workshops are not discipline specific and provide participants with concrete strategies and exercises to improve both the quality and productivity of their writing both within the workshops and outside of them.
You can find our schedule for Winter Quarter 2025 workshops (and links to register to attend) below:
Writing Compelling Abstracts
Monday, February 3, 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM CST — Register
First impressions matter. Whether giving presentations or submitting articles for publication, titles and abstracts are the first point of contact between texts and readers. Yet, it is not always so easy to make our work immediately stand out from the crowd. With this in mind, we have developed a workshop dedicated to providing key strategies to help create dynamic and intriguing abstracts. In this 90-minute workshop, we will cover the essential information that abstracts of different lengths must contain and workshop examples from a variety of disciplines.
Location: TGS Commons
Organizing Large Writing Projects
Tuesday, February 4, 4:30 PM to 6 PM CST — Register
One of the challenges that graduate school presents is learning to manage large writing projects like master’s theses and doctoral dissertations. Longer pieces of writing require that students pay attention to the consistency, coherence, and overall aims of a project, even while working on its smallest details. Participants in the workshop will receive guidance about how to break a large writing project into manageable and ordered stages, as well as how to develop outlines and utilize software for conceptualizing and organizing their writing. During the workshop, participants will have a chance to discuss their own long-term projects with their peers.
Location: TGS Commons
Strategies for Revising, Editing, & Proofreading Your Own Writing
Tuesday, February 25, 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM CST — Register
Though the best writing benefits from the insights and feedback of others, there are numerous ways that you can effectively improve your own writing. As writers, a lot of our arguments become clear not only as we write, but, surprisingly, as we do multiple rounds of revision after writing. With this goal in mind, this workshop will review a number of strategies for revising, editing, and proofreading your writing. We will spend the first half of the workshop exploring techniques for tackling large-scale revisions for organization and clarity. Topics will include: the difference between revision and editing, revision as a personal process, and the process of incorporating feedback. We will spend the second half of the workshop trying different revision exercises to help you find strategies that work best for your writing style and process.
Location: TGS Commons
Dissertation Boot Camps provide advanced graduate students with a place and time to make fast, efficient progress on dissertation writing, as well as provide them with tools and resources to create positive writing habits. During the two-week camp, students work independently on their writing as well as have the opportunity to participate in workshops, one-on-one coaching, and peer consultation.
Our Dissertation Boot Camp for Summer 2024 will run from July 15th- July 26th, Monday-Friday, from 9:00am-1:00pm. We will be offering both in-person and online modalities this summer. Register here by May 19th!
You are eligible to apply if you are a PhD student who has:
- passed your dissertation proposal/advanced to candidacy
- collected most of the research for your dissertation
- begun the writing process
Dissertation Boot Camps are supported by The Graduate School.
Writing Retreats
Writing Retreats provide a flexible but regular physical or virtual space and time throughout the year for graduate students to write together. Writing Retreats are offered throughout the year both in person and on Zoom, and each lasts three hours. During optional check-ins at the beginning, middle, and end of each retreat, students can respond to writing prompts, discuss writing and the writing process with peers, and reach out in the group chat for help with specific writing challenges. Use of camera and microphone on Zoom is optional. While participants are encouraged to attend entire sessions, they are welcome to drop in or out at any time.
Writing Retreat FAQs
Inbox Updates from the Graduate Writing Place
You can click here to read our latest newsletter. The newsletter for The Graduate Writing Place allows us to tell you more about our services. Each newsletter includes reminders about upcoming workshops, registration windows for writing groups and boot camps, and application deadlines for fellowships and assistantships. We also get to tell you more about our amazing events and the Fellows that form our team. To get the newsletter, enter your email in the box below and click the “subscribe” button join our Mailchimp mailing list.
