The UWC is one of few places on campus offering academic support and resources specifically tailored to graduate students. Graduate school was already a precarious and anxious experience, and the tumult of 2020 has only exacerbated the difficulties we graduate students face. I am also extremely grateful to hold a postdoctoral lectureship in the UT English department this coming academic year. The calm spring break revision time I had been counting on vanished amid global upheaval and anxiety, and my usual focus and concentration have yet to return, but I was able to defend my dissertation on nineteenth- and twentieth-century British fiction at the end of April and will receive my Ph.D. I would also recommend signing up for the UWC graduate services listserv for weekly motivation and announcements of upcoming events.īecause my dissertation work progressed relatively straightforwardly and on time, thanks in many ways to the UWC, I was nearly done with my defense draft when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the UT campus in mid-March. If neither of those options sound like your cup of tea, you might also consider attending a UWC event like the monthly writing retreats or recurring workshops. I have also scheduled one-on-one consultations in the writing center because I find that getting an outside perspective on my research can help me move past writing blocks and regain motivation.
Quite a large chunk of my dissertation was generated during these sessions. Two hours once a week may not sound like much, but I found these dedicated writing blocks to be much more productive than writing at home by myself. There were many points while writing my dissertation, especially when I was teaching and on the job market, when my weekly group felt like a port in a storm. My favorite resource is the graduate writing groups, which I have both participated in and led, because they provide camaraderie, low-stakes accountability, and protected writing time. In addition to working at the UWC, I also used their graduate services. Perhaps most importantly, learning about the fascinating research being conducted across campus by my graduate student consultees and working with them to address their writing concerns reminded me that my own dissertation woes were solvable too, and that I shouldn’t lose sight of the joy I find in my scholarship. Working at the UWC has also taught me to prioritize writing process over product, a mindset that made the dissertation feel a little less overwhelming. Luckily, my writing center work familiarized me with writing habits and strategies that I used to make consistent progress on my dissertation. Writing a 200-page dissertation is the hardest thing I have ever done.
As a former UWC consultant with many years of experience teaching and tutoring writing, I think I can state with some authority that writing is hard.
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