The context of higher education in Canada suffers from alarming rates of dropout and prolongation of study programmes. The lack of academic writing ability and feeling of isolation are among aggravating factors impeding on the success of graduate students. Writing retreats are identified as a potential solution to support and improve academic writing output. This article presents an innovative concept designed by a non-profit organisation, Thèsez-vous, specializing in creating physical and human environments to facilitate academic writing. Over the past four years, the organisation implemented and formalized a writing retreat model for graduate students from various fields of study and universities across the Quebec province in Canada. A description of the writing retreats structure and functioning is presented, as well as an analysis of established objectives: 1) progress academic writing based on realistic individual goals; 2) identify optimal writing conditions; and 3) reduce isolation. Based on conclusive findings, the implemented model produces positive results in developing academic writing abilities through a community of practice forming during writing retreats and interacting afterwards. This expanding network of graduate students represents a new generation of researchers, sharing similar challenges with academic writing and collaborating in interdisciplinary settings to progress scientific efforts at large .

PhD candidates face heavy workloads and lack strategies to prioritize their dissertation, resulting in limited writing opportunities and low confidence in writing capabilities. Although writing retreats are known to propel academics’ writing productivity, little is known about how they may assist PhD candidates in enhancing writing self-efficacy and self-regulation. An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Method with a quasi-experimental design was used to examine the impacts of writing retreats on PhD candidates’ internal factors (writing self-efficacy and self-regulation) and external factors (urgency and opportunities to write). An experimental group (n = 34) and a control group (n = 64) answered a questionnaire measuring retreat effects, after which a subsample (n = 30) was interviewed to further interpret these effects. In sum, writing retreats enhance PhD candidates’ writing self-efficacy and self-regulation through goals setting and time management practices. Recommendations are provided about using socially structured writing activities to support PhD candidates’ dissertation advancement.

Over the past twenty years, graduate studies have seen significant growth, with student numbers more than doubling worldwide. Unfortunately, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development continues to report dropout rates averaging 50% for PhD and 40% for master’s programs, in all disciplines combined. Among the reasons quoted for abandoning study programs are deficient academic writing competencies that could not only hinder how graduate students progress through their academic journey, but also how they integrate with the scientific community as novice scholars. Accordingly, this article will present an overview of studies related to academic writing groups, which have been identified as one of the strategies to benefit graduate studies. Based on a systematic literature review, we present a chronological account of key issues and concepts that have influenced the phenomenon throughout history. Thereafter, we explain the various characteristics of academic writing groups in order to delineate this phenomenon through the description of its inherent elements and propose an all-encompassing definition. The analysis of 72 documentary sources also allows the observation of trends through the examination of geographical, disciplinary, and methodological factors drawn from scholarly publications. Finally, we highlight considerations for future exploration of academic writing groups used as a pedagogical strategy in the context of higher education, from disciplinary, sociocultural, and gender perspectives.

To overcome the assumption that dissertation writing is an anxiety-provoking process, this multi-phase mixed-method research aimed to develop a comprehensive picture of writing enjoyment in the context of doctoral studies, as well as to understand if and how writing in the company of others can enhance dissertation writing enjoyment. Firstly, we interviewed 30 PhD students to conceptualize writing enjoyment. These qualitative results revealed that dissertation writing enjoyment represents a moment of clarity when doctoral students’ ideas are easily extracted from the mind to be written as a tangible text perceived to be of high quality. Then, based on a pre-experimental design, a T-test was used to compare the scores of writing enjoyment and sense of writing community for two equivalent groups in terms of sociodemographic and academic profiles: 59 PhD students participating in writing retreats (experimental group) and 59 PhD students writing alone (control group). Overall, the experimental group shows higher writing enjoyment. Lastly, 15 PhD students participating in writing retreats were interviewed to understand how writing in the company of others seems to enhance writing enjoyment, that is, by way of social flow. Finally, this article provides empirical evidence for reforming pedagogical practices to foster PhD students’ positive emotions.

Graduate students and novice researchers face various challenges in their study programs or workplaces, including a research-focused curriculum and high research expectations at the expense of other areas of responsibility that would allow for training and socializing in their environment. The involvement in participatory action research (PAR) is a lever for supporting the professionalization of apprentice and novice researchers by promoting their training through the development of skills adapted to individual circumstances and by fostering their socialization in the academic environment. The results of the analysis of 63 reflective logbooks, two focus groups, and 20 individual interviews show professionalization in both areas of training and socializing. More specifically, the four professional skills that were most developed are project management, collaboration, digital, media, and information literacy, and communication. In terms of socialization, the experience of performing research differently, the implementation of horizontal governance, the varied distribution of responsibilities among participants, the work in multidisciplinary teams, and the hands-on learning of the PAR process played a decisive role. A discussion follows on the potential of PAR for the professionalization of emerging scholars, focusing on the strengths and distinctive features of their experience.