In 2020 and 2021, Maynooth University (MU) Library ran an academic writing programme for library staff,
loosely based on the international Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo) model. This model originated
in the U.S. with the aim of encouraging and supporting writing among early career academics and
researchers. Individuals or teams set November as a time to advance their writing substantially through
establishing specific writing goals and recording both time spent writing and output. The MU Library
version of AcWriMo was offered in November 2020 (AcWriMo1) and February 2021 (AcWriMo2).
The goal for AcWriMo1 (November 2020) was to write a blog post of between 800 and 1,000 words.
The goal for AcWriMo2 (February 2021) was similar – to complete a piece of writing of between 1,000 and
1,500 words for either a blog post or a professional journal. No prior experience of academic writing was
necessary, and the programme was offered to library staff across all grades.
Following a brief review of the literature relating to academic writing groups, this article provides a
step-by-step description of the content of the writing programme, which could be adapted and developed
by other academic writing groups. It then discusses the outputs from the group, their evaluation of the
process and the key emerging issues.
AcWriMo @Maynooth University
Library: a guide to running an
academic writing programme
Keywords
academic writing; publishing; staff development; libraries; AcWriMo
Literature review
There is a significant body of literature relating to support for writing for academic
publication, which, while not specifically relating to library staff, is applicable. This includes
information on models for writing groups. In The Work of Writing, Rankin describes
academic writing groups she has facilitated.
1
Professor Rowena Murray offers guidelines on facilitating academic writing groups,
providing a framework for a series of six writing workshops – each three hours in duration,
over a period of six months.
2
This allows participants time to take on board new ideas and
strategies and to advance their writing. Murray found the programme ‘offers a relatively
efficient model for initiating, increasing or improving writing. Moreover, participants
generally submit papers soon after the course has ended.’
3
Stivers and Cramer discuss a writing partnership, where two people work on a joint article.
They suggest starting with a small writing project and a clear focus on what both people
want from the writing partnership. A target date for completion and a weekly phone call are
recommended – ‘just knowing that the call is coming is a spur to action’.
4
Eodice and Cramer explore the benefits of a one-year campus-wide writing programme,
Write On!, where 30 people from different faculties and units participated. The programme
helped people increase their publication output.
5
Insights– 35, 2022
A guide to running an academic writing programme | Helen Fallon
HELEN FALLON
Deputy University
Librarian
Maynooth University
Ireland
2
Moore, Murphy and Murray describe the features and operation of writers’ retreats (typically
five days) they have facilitated and demonstrate the value of these both in the immediate
and longer term, such as total immersion, writing support, engaging in the target activity,
the creation of a community of practice and the provision of a holistic, pleasant, healthy
environment.
6
While the above authors have worked primarily with academic staff and postgraduates, the
models they describe could, and sometimes do, include librarians. In writing about librarians
as academic writers, Snyder Broussard notes that writing communities of librarians do not
have to be limited to librarians. Writing groups across a university can provide opportunities
to form new relationships, participate in new writing partnerships and
foster deeper understanding of different roles. Participation in mixed
groups can heighten the visibility of librarians in the academy and
help them identify how to assist academic colleagues better. It also
demonstrates that librarians, too, can be published authors.
7
Gannon-Leary and Bent suggest that librarians develop a Community of
Writers (CoW) as a ‘…safe place for people to practice their academic writing
and also to learn about academic writing (it could be conceived as a virtual “writing retreat”). A
CoW would aim to help people write, research, and teach more confidently and creatively.’
8
Frequently, the literature relating to writing supports for librarians in the U.S. focuses on
support for tenure-track librarians where publishing is tied in with achieving tenure. In this
context, Campbell, Ellis and Adebonojo explore using a writing group to develop collaborative
papers and presentations.
9
Similarly, Ackerman et al., in a survey of 200 early career U.S.
librarians, noted the importance of mentoring and writing groups in helping to develop
research skills and confidence.
10
Exner and Houk describe two writing group models used with librarians
in two University of North Carolina colleges. One, Jackson, established
an academic writing group inspired by Paul Silvia’s book How to Write a
Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing.
11
Meetings were
fortnightly, involved approximately seven librarians, with the emphasis in
each thirty-minute meeting on sharing goals for the coming two weeks.
Outside of the meetings participants peer reviewed each other’s work.
The Bluford Library’s academic writing group was more informal and met
during their lunch hour. At the first meetings, librarians who had published
shared their experiences of the writing and peer review process. Following
that, meetings were an opportunity to discuss writing-related topics and progress with
actual writing. While people did not significantly progress their writing outside the group,
both models had some success in increasing confidence and motivation to write.
12
Jason Boczar, Barbara Lewis and Tomaro Taylor describe a Research and Publishing
Committee for librarians, established at the University of South Florida (USF). Supports
offered included facilitated writing groups, guidance documents and templates for articles,
along with setting up peer writing partnerships.
13
Fallon explores the potential of a blended learning approach to support Irish library staff to
develop the motivation and skills to write for publication. This initiative had three elements:
a one-day writing workshop, followed by the establishment of an online writing group,
which carried out a series of writing tasks that built up to a journal article, and finally, two
peer-feedback days. The article suggests that the combination of online and face-to-face
activities has the potential to be a sustainable model for helping library staff to develop their
skills to publish.
14
Sullivan et al. carried out a case study of the Get Published Group at RMIT University
Library in Australia. Participants in this group were librarians with little experience in
getting published. The facilitators were two librarians who had published. The group met
every two months for 18 months and used a range of learning methods, including input from
group members, external speakers, practical writing exercises and reflection time. Group
‘Writing groups across
a university can
provide opportunities’
‘librarians, noted
the importance of
mentoring and writing
groups in helping to
develop research skills
and confidence’
3
effectiveness was evaluated midway and at the end by a survey and by tracking publication
output. Results indicated that group members developed their confidence, knowledge of the
publication process and research techniques. Publication output also increased.
15
McBain, Culshaw and Walkey-Hall explore how a Library Research
Working Group (RWG) at Flinders University has helped to build a culture
of research practice and professional reflection among librarians.
16
As noted, a significant body of the literature relating to academic writing
focuses on librarians in tenure-track posts. The literature outside of
this focuses on librarians writing for publication. There is no literature
on library assistants and related grades developing their writing and
publishing skills. This article aims to help fill this vacuum and to highlight
the importance of academic and professional writing as a valid form of
continuing professional development for all grades of library staff.
Background and context
Maynooth University (MU) Library has a culture that supports writing for
academic publication among library staff and publication output by library
staff is high by national standards.
17
Supporting library staff publishing is articulated in our Library Strategic
Plan 2020–2023
‘20.2 We will develop Library internal research capacity by
encouraging Library staff to undertake formal education programmes,
attend conferences, publish and participate in professional bodies.’
18
The Library offers an annual workshop on writing for academic publication to staff in Irish
libraries. During the Covid-19 pandemic this changed to a virtual workshop (via Zoom). In
addition to participants from Ireland, the virtual workshop attracted participants from the
U.K., Italy and Indonesia.
At University Research Week,
19
Love Data Week
20
and similar events, guest speakers, from
within the University and beyond, present on various topics relating to publishing. This
has included a lunchtime presentation, during Love Data Week in 2020, by the editor of
New Review of Academic Librarianship (NRAL). This event, via Zoom, attracted almost 40
library staff from Ireland and beyond. A librarian and a lecturer in Library and Information
Studies shared a lunchtime platform as part of Research Week, with the title From Pitch to
Publication, outlining their experience of publishing a book.
21
AcWriMo is a new initiative at MU Library. Initially established in 2011 by Charlotte Frost,
then a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, it drew on the
model for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), where participants aim to write
50,000 words of fiction in a month. Frost developed a similar model for academic writing
and invited people worldwide to participate each November via her website.
22
The decision to develop a local model at MU Library was taken because the formal AcWriMo
month is geared towards very substantial writing projects, where people are, for example,
endeavouring to complete a PhD thesis or advance a book to publication.
Participation
The option of participating in the programme was offered, via e-mail, to all library staff,
excepting student assistants. Seven people signed up for AcWriMo1 and five for AcWriMo2.
As facilitator, I felt that these numbers were ideal in terms of both group interaction and
my ability to manage the process and to advise and support participants. Danielewicz and
‘group members
developed their
confidence, knowledge
of the publication
process and research
techniques’
‘There is no literature
on library assistants
and related grades
developing their
writing and publishing
skills. This article aims
to help fill this vacuum’
4 McGowan suggest that a writing group should have a maximum of six people, with each
member working on his or her own project and giving input to other participants on their
work, prior to more formal feedback from referees or editors.
23
Rankin, another experienced
facilitator of writing groups, generally works with six to twelve people.
24
Of the seven who signed up for AcWriMo1, three were at librarian grades and four at library
assistant and related grades. Of the five who signed up for AcWriMo2, one was at librarian
grade, the other four at library assistant grade.
Time
The group met using the Teams programme for one hour once a week. In addition to this,
one hour of work time, four days per week, over the four-week period, was allowed for
writing, subject to the needs of the library service. Participants were, of course, free to do
further writing outside work time.
The allocation of four hours per week, over four weeks (16 hours in total),
was sufficient to progress a straightforward piece of writing without
impacting on regular library operations. This amount of time was the
equivalent of attending two days training and two days were recorded as
staff training days for all participants. All meeting dates were established
at the outset.
Topics
Writing topics were agreed in advance with me as facilitator. I stressed,
in my initial e-mail, that the piece of writing should not be research-based
(unless the research had already been completed) and that the focus should be on writing a
straightforward blog post or article within the month. The e-mail also suggested that topics
might include, but were not restricted to, descriptions of training undertaken, a review of
a library-related book, a library event, a reflection on some aspect of the writer’s work or
career or a description of a library initiative.
Week 1
During the first one-hour meeting in Teams, people were asked to keep their cameras on and
to introduce themselves. As facilitator, I explained the aim of this four-week programme,
which was to:
• find your voice
• organize your ideas
• structure your piece
• present it as coherent narrative.
The outcome was to:
Produce a piece of writing of between 800 and 1,500 words suitable for either a blog post
or professional journal article. A series of tasks followed which gave people the opportunity
to work to a time deadline and word count.
Over four weeks, participants completed a series of 13 tasks. These tasks and the
weekly structure can be accessed from the data accessibility statement at the end of this
article.
‘the piece of writing
should not be
research-based …
and that the focus
should be on writing a
straightforward blog
post or article’
5
Outputs
Seven people signed up for AcWriMo1. One left after session one, a second person after
Week 2. Pressure of work was cited as the reason for leaving the group by the person who
left after the first session. The person who left after session two had completed a major
library project and had a large body of information that she wished to write up in some form.
It is likely the project was too big for this model. Four of the five people who completed
AcWriMo1 published their blog posts; the fourth person presented on her writing at our
library Year in Review Event.
Five people signed up for AcWriMo2. All participants completed AcWriMo2. One was
somewhat outside the group, as she was working on a peer-reviewed article but felt she
would benefit from the collegiality of the group and some dedicated writing time. While she
found the process of value, she did not complete her article during AcWriMo2. Three of the
four others published their blog posts and a fourth published a 1,500-word article in An
Leabharlann: The Irish Library.
Feedback
From the point of view of output, the model can be perceived as quite effective. However,
I wanted to find out more about people’s actual experience of AcWriMo. Shortly after
the completion of both iterations of AcWriMo, I asked people, by e-mail, to write a short
narrative piece about the experience. Six people responded. Full responses can be accessed
from the data accessibility statement at the end of this article. Key points of feedback
included the value of having time to write, a support network, a common purpose and
specific writing goal, peer support, a facilitator and the opportunity to be
part of a community of practice. These points are discussed in turn.
Time and space
Often people feel they cannot write unless they have a large chunk of time,
but, in reality, that rarely happens for library staff, and we need to use the
small slots of time we find here and there. The experience of AcWriMo
illustrated to people that it is possible to execute a clearly defined writing
project in a set period, in this case one month. The feedback also noted
how this can be fun.
‘I realized that it can be informal, fun, flexible and personal while still being
informative and valuable to others.’
The group offered a safe space where people could share experiences and learn from each
other. People valued this dedicated time without work interruptions. The size of the groups,
with small numbers (seven and five), was also important.
‘In a small group it is easier to build trust and engender confidence in putting work
out for colleagues to read.’
Support network
In normal circumstances a writing group is likely to be of value. During the Covid-19
pandemic this was even more the case. While all participants were MU Library staff, by the
time AcWriMo2 started (April 2021) we had been working remotely for almost a year. Two
staff members appointed during the period had not met the other members of the group in
person and the value of this was noted in the feedback.
Common purpose and specific writing goal
The fact that all members of the group were library staff meant there were common
understandings and contexts. Danielewicz and McGowan suggest that when setting up a
writing group, it is important to find colleagues who have an interest in working in a group, a
‘it is possible to
execute a clearly
defined writing project
in a set period, in this
case one month’
6
willingness to share work that they feel may be very unformed and are prepared to respond
to the work of others. They note the writing group is meant to increase the effectiveness
of the member’s written work, not to police the kind of work being done, and that writing
groups have a lifespan. ‘The two essentials for all groups are establishing
a firm, regular schedule and a workable format for circulating and reading
each other’s work.’
25
Having a specific writing goal from the outset was beneficial. The fact that
almost all participants were writing a blog post gave a very clear focus,
and helped me as facilitator, to structure writing tasks and plan sessions.
The articulated aims – find your voice, organize your ideas, structure your
piece, present it as a coherent narrative – also helped to have clarity from
the outset. Breaking tasks down helped and made the writing process
less daunting.
‘When I hear the word “academic writing”, I tend to think of
assignments or a formal style of writing which automatically brings me
back to university standards and the pressure of deadlines.’
‘I was very nervous starting out at doing this. I have never written a
blog post before and I wasn’t sure where to start.’
In both the November and February iterations of AcWriMo, the participants were from
different areas in the Library and, even in normal circumstances, would not be working
together.
Peer feedback
The value of feedback and peer support, with weekly meetings and the
opportunity to comment on drafts, was particularly important. People
appreciated the feedback of their colleagues and the facilitator, which was
done in a sensitive manner in what was a safe space for all.
Facilitation
The value of the facilitator in co-ordinating and driving the process, and in
giving feedback, was noted.
Community of practice
Completing a blog post, in addition to giving participants the opportunity
to write a relatively short informal piece about a topic that interested
them, helped develop skills and confidence in writing. It helped people
connect locally, and nationally, giving them a sense of being part of a
larger community of library practice. Feedback indicated that participants
planned to continue writing into the future.
‘I now have a record of a fairly big experience in my life, and I’m quite proud of it.’
‘AcWriMo was also a great opportunity to connect with library staff
across Ireland who read my published blog post.’
‘I am delighted that my blog post was published online and I am
already formulating ideas for the next one.’
‘In the future, I would enjoy a common space to share each other’s
work and provide feedback to each other.’
Conclusion
Schneider identifies four factors conducive to productive writing groups. These are safety,
self-confidence, focus and practice. She emphasizes the importance of the writer having a
‘The two essentials …
are establishing a firm,
regular schedule and
a workable format for
circulating and reading
each other’s work’
‘Having a specific
writing goal from the
outset was beneficial’
‘It helped people
connect … giving them
a sense of being part of
a larger community of
library practice’
‘four factors conducive
to productive writing
groups … are safety,
self-confidence, focus
and practice’
‘The value of feedback
and peer support
… was particularly
important’
7 community of support and notes that writing for sharing and responding require wisdom and
firm leadership.
26
I believe our group offered this.
Having dedicated time and a structure validates writing as a form of continuing professional
development (CPD). Frequently library staff perceive CPD as attending courses either on or
off-site, and more recently via Zoom.
A survey of Irish academic librarians found that 21 per cent listed lack of time as the reason
that they had not published.
27
The amount of time given for AcWriMo, 16 hours over four
weeks, and an additional four hours for the group meeting, was not excessive and did not
impact detrimentally on work. The structure of the process ensures time is not wasted, as
can happen with unfocused writing projects.
AcWriMo provided participants with the opportunity to interact with other library staff to
explore topics of mutual interest and to articulate interesting ideas. The process of writing
can generate new ideas and some of the group have subsequently produced further blog
posts. Three participants entered a national blog post competition for library staff, and one
was awarded second prize. Another participant had an article published by An Leabharlann:
The Irish Library. Having a blog post or article published has engendered confidence in
members of the group, which is important in further developing academic writing.
The group was self-selecting, with people putting their names forward. This meant there was
a high level of motivation from the outset. This in turn helped generate the
intellectual energy that producing good writing requires.
Participants were at different grades and worked in different sections of
the Library. As noted earlier, this was very valuable, particularly during
the Covid-19 pandemic, where some people had not met in person. It also
emphasized that professional writing is not limited to librarian grades and
all library staff have valuable experiences that can be crafted into articles.
AcWriMo is one of several methods that can be used to develop academic writing skills. The
longer-term impact of this endeavour on writing output will be the subject of future study.
Data accessibility statement
A detailed outline of the tasks undertaken by participants of AcWriMo is stored in Maynooth University repository and available at
https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/15174 The participants’ full feedback is also available at https://mural.maynoothuniversity.
ie/15173.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank those participants whose feedback has been used in this article.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
A list of the abbreviations and acronyms used in this and other Insights articles can be accessed here – click on the URL below and
then select the ‘full list of industry A&As’ link: http://www.uksg.org/publications#aa.
Competing interests
The author has declared no competing interests.
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9
Article copyright: © 2022 Helen Fallon. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use and distribution provided the original
author and source are credited.
Helen Fallon
Deputy University Librarian
Maynooth University
Ireland, IE
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6249-9797
To cite this article:
Fallon H, “AcWriMo @Maynooth University Library: a guide to running an academic writing programme,”
Insights, 2022, 35: 5, 1–9; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.568
Submitted on 17 September 2021 Accepted on 11 November 2021Published on 03 March 2022
Published by UKSG in association with Ubiquity Press.
