What is the Scholar’s Retreat?
The GSAC Scholar’s Retreat has been developed to help students progress through the difficult
writing stages of the dissertation process. By offering a quiet environment and support for
intensive, focused writing time, the Retreat provides participants with the structure and
motivation to overcome typical roadblocks in the dissertation process. Our goal is to assist each
participant in making significant progress toward completing his or her project.
Is this for me?
This event is directed primarily toward students in the final stages of writing their dissertations.
In many disciplines, final stages could be defined as the time period after data has been
collected. However, individuals working on a dissertation proposal or master’s thesis could also
benefit from the structured time, space, professional writing consultation, and motivational
support of the program.
The Scholar’s Retreat is limited to 15 Texas Tech University graduate students per session. An
online synchronous evening session of Scholar’s Retreat is also available for 25 distance
graduate students in online degree programs.
On-site and online participants must be able to commit to writing for 3 designated hours every
day during the week of Scholar’s Retreat. If you cannot commit to write during the designated
hours when we have writing consultants available, we ask that you do not register for Scholar’s
Retreat this semester so that other graduate students can take advantage of the opportunity.
We will have another Scholar’s Retreat in the spring semester.
What should I expect?
At the beginning of the Retreat, participants sign individual “contracts” indicating the goal they
would like to reach by the end of the week. They then determine mini-goals to help them
accomplish the larger project.
For the next five days, participants spend three hours per day writing and working on their
dissertation. Writing consultants will be available throughout this time. In addition on-site and
online students will be enrolled in a Blackboard non-academic Scholar’s Retreat course with
resources, discussion boards, and writing consultant contacts to help support your writing and
networking with other writers during and after Scholar’s Retreat.
Midway through the Retreat, we will hold a coffee-hour, bringing together morning
and evening participants to chat with each other, share tips, and discuss dissertation-related
experiences. It is our hope that this coffee-hour will allow you make connections that can help
you establish your own dissertation writing support group after the workshop. Materials will be
provided to help guide you through the steps of setting up such a group.
On the last day of the Retreat, the final hour will be devoted to sharing the progress
you have made during the Retreat with fellow scholars, as well as examining your progress
toward your goals.
When will the Retreat happen?
For the Fall 2013 semester, there will be two sessions for the Retreat with meetings every day
from November 18th through November 22nd:
(1) 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM, on-site graduate students only
(2) 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, on-site and online graduate students
How can I sign up?
Please sign up here: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/gradschool/private/default.aspx
Sign in with your eRaider, select Event Registration Page, then select the session you would like
to sign up for and register. If the session you want is full, you will have the option to put your
name on a waitlist and be notified if/when there is an opening. We plan to host Retreats each
semester, so you will also have the opportunity to participate in future semesters if these
sessions fill.
Please email kimberly.elmore@ttu.edu with any questions.