Our Faculty have three writing weeks each year, when we focus on our writing. In our department, we facilitate the week with a mix of writing slots, expert sessions and a daily short writing sprint, based on the work of Peter Elbow on freewriting. This presentation has the daily writing 'sprint' tasks - please feel free to re-use and share - just credit where appropriate (all credits at end of slidedeck)

1. Welcome to the
Department of
Nursing Science
writing sprint
facilitated by Debbie Holley
With expert sessions from Vanessa Heaslip,
Pramod Regmi, and dawn Morley and Les
Gelling
One idea, write for 20 minutes, report
back....or carry on....

2. Expert talks:
• Tuesday: Dr Vanessa Heaslip and Prof Debbie Holley spoke
about writing for formal publications (practice journals,
academic journals, book chapters) and Influential
publication (syndicated national blogs, policy writing for
Governmental evidence as well as 'The conversation' and
'WonkHE')
• Wednesday: Dr Pramod Regmi offered insights into building
our academic profiles using a whole range of tools, and
showed how he worked across the different types of
mediums
• Thursday Dr Dawn Morley shared the joys and challenges of
collaborations and leading her four edited book collections
• And Friday our week closed with Dr Les Gelling speaking
about the peer review process as the editor of two
prestigious nursing journals
All slides available in MSTeams/DNS/All staff/staff development –
and Faculty staff wanting access, contact Debbie

3. Day 1: getting started?
The genre task
Once upon a time, you were walking across a
beautiful beach when looking out to sea you saw
a.... now select a genre, and freewrite for three
minutes...
Thriller/comedy/romance/horror/sci-fi/ epic/fairytale/
fantasy/crime/history
• then link the final sentence into your 'real' writing
• Based on Peter Elbows' work and English, (2011)

4. Different kinds of writing....by Vanessa and Debbie
Practice journals
Academic journals
Book chapters
Blogs

5. The blank screen/
empty piece of
paper task Photo by Krisztina
Kovari on Unsplash
Day 2:
It is national bird day

6. task
• On one piece of paper, write
for three minutes about either:
• This robin
• A PhD paragraph /piece of
writing you are struggling with
On the other piece of
paper,
note what is distracting you,
no matter how small, large,
significant/insignificant

7. Reflections on
distractions
https://www.phrasebank.manchester.
ac.uk/
https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-
and-tools/conciseness-handout/
Photo by Benoit Gauzere on Unsplash

8. Please take a screen grab of this
beautiful tree, or take a
photo using your mobile, or draw a
tree with roots and branches
Then – use post-it notes or add text to the image:
the roots are the key underlying principles of your paragraphs, the leaves are the examples, illustrative quotes, etc

9. option 1 pulling it all
together...amazing abstracts
and fabulous first lines
Abstracts:
10.20 There shall be an abstract of approximately 300 words on a single
page bound into the thesis. The abstract should be single line spaced.
The abstract should state the nature and scope of the work undertaken
and of the contribution to knowledge in the discipline. The abstract
should normally contain four separate paragraphs which shall clearly
state: (a) what was investigated and why; (b) how the topic was
investigated; (c) what was found; (d) what conclusions were drawn from
the evidence
Anglia Ruskin research degree regulations 2019
Badley, G.F., 2020. Why and how academics
write. Qualitative Inquiry, 26(3-4), pp.247-256. Available online:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1077800418810722
First lines:
The wonderful amazing academic phrasebank
EXCELLENT site for linking phrases and for WRITING:
http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

10. Changing our writing
practices
• Welcome to day 4! Option 2
• Try: Writtenkitten Write 100 words,
get a kitten image
• Try: 30 little ways to motivate you to
write Select one a day

11. Resources and inspiration from:
All based around Peter Elbows ideas
for freewriting
http://peterelbow.com/
Images from Unsplash.com - copyright
free pictures
Daily ' it is national bird day'
from https://nationaldaycalendar.com/
what-day-is-it/
Creative ideas from Pauline Ridleys
work
at https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/visualle
arning/drawing/
And from Sandra Sinfield and the team
running #CreativeHE