Through NARTI and our newly-formed network Writing for Research and Academic Practice (WRAP) network, we will share training and development opportunities that are designed to support the development of academic and social writing. This space will also provide details of forthcoming Structured Writing Retreats (SWRs) that are being organised in the UK and overseas, paper development workshops, publishing seminars and useful resources to support your writing process.
Please join our next Summit event taking place online on Wednesday 19th March 2025.
Purpose of the Network
- Research, conduct and promote structured writing retreats (SWRs) as a form of academic development intervention.
- Facilitate the organisation and co-facilitation of SWRs and ‘taster’ retreats
- Mutual mentoring (‘tandem’) between facilitators for peer assessment/mutual learning
- Sharing and exchange of materials/worksheets/frameworks and approaches for workshop elements and tools for writer development during retreats
- Mutual exploration and creation of research opportunities (e.g., coordinating for using retreats/groups for data collection purposes)
- Promotion and discussion of latest research on academic writing development and SWRs and identification of barriers and enablers in engaging in these
- Sharing/promotion of retreat opportunities/offers
- Sharing insights on venues and programme elements for retreats
- Implement robust evaluation of the network and its practices through qualitative and quantitative methods
- Sustainable growth through the access of relevant external funding resource
- Capacity-building as a process of developing and strengthening the skills for academic writing development and practice
Positioning Statement
The Writing for Research and Academic Practice (WRAP) network develops, supports, and strengthens methods of social writing as effective practice within and beyond academia. Social writing provides a structured method for writers to work with others on individual projects; to build productivity, creativity, and collaboration; and to nurture the craft and community of academic writing in an age of generative AI.We recognise that to develop as academic writers, we need to balance the pressure to perform and deliver outputs with the need to cultivate sustainable and fulfilling writing practices that align with personal and professional growth. WRAP fosters a collaborative environment that balances research excellence with reflective practice, interdisciplinary exchange, and sustainable writing habits.Based upon Professor Rowena Murray's social process approach, WRAP works to develop communities of practice amongst academics, researchers, and professionals at every stage of the writing process. WRAP focuses on horizontal, evidence based methods that recognise and develop peer to peer support structures for productive scholarly writing. We have a wealth of experience in developing structured social writing programmes that protect and enhance the commitment and wellbeing of writers.WRAP Manifesto
Original, informed, well-crafted, and targeted writing is a fundamental part of the learning and knowledge generation and dissemination work at the core of higher education and other research and professional contexts.
As demand for output grows, resources decline and knowledge generators are pressured to maintain or increase output without commensurate institutional support, writing work suffers. And as scholarly and professional writing and publication increasingly rely on algorithmic tools, the vital role of craft, community and sensemaking involved in writing is at risk of being devalued.
Social writing is an effective counter to this risk and provides a set of methods that sustain and nurture the elements that underpin impactful research writing: vision, exploration and connection.
To that end, the WRAP Network calls on leaders and practitioners in higher education and professional settings – e.g. scholars and researchers, teachers and supervisors, academic line managers, senior officers, managers, policy-makers, and writing professionals – to effect change to:
1. Support the practice of academic writing as a socially embedded and embodied act of knowledge creation and dissemination.
2. Avoid language that reduces writing to technical skills or competence.
3. Broaden access to social writing for all by hosting and funding social writing events and programmes and training faculty, staff and instructors to facilitate social writing.
4. Allocate time and space for writing in work and study.
5. Make writing an explicit practice for all staff and students.
6. Support and enable the diversity and multiplicity of ways to produce and disseminate academic/scientific knowledge.
7. Acknowledge the benefits of social writing for staff, students and institutions and a range of academic and professional workplaces.
8. Guarantee equal opportunities for social writing.
9. Ensure staff and student wellbeing by supporting social writing.
10. Prioritise social writing practices over surveillance of written outputs through writers’ groups, writing meetings, and writing retreats.