HireWire CDT Writing Retreat
4 December 2015
The two days CDT HighWire writing retreat in Wyresdale Park Scorton provides a good environment to think and write. Normally an efficient writing requires a peaceful and calm place, and this retreat was structured and scheduled in such a way that researchers could have a better outcome of it. This is achieved in two ways:
- Setting goals for both days, as well as getting feedback from someone else on the realism of these goals. On the end of the day, reflect on what is a reasonable goal for yourself.
- Have scheduled breaks and stick to them. Instead of continuingly working until you ‘finished’ a section, write some keywords of what you will need to do to finish the section. This makes it easier to pick up writing and makes your day more fun (compared to writing by yourself non-stop). Furthermore, the absence of internet access allowed for more focussed writing periods.
We attended this writing session in order to work on our group project report. We felt the schedule of the writing retreat would be useful during writing-intensive periods, especially if you can team up with some other PhD students and have breaks together! This turned out to be one of the goals of the program; finding others that are willing to work according to a schedule and have breaks together. Therefore, it would be good to have some other students from our department at a writing retreat session. Furthermore, we believe that working on a group project in a structured way can be beneficial as well. The structured sessions allow group-members to keep each-other up to date on their progress.
Besides the writing sessions the retreat gave us the chance to meet some PhD student from another CDT programme. It was interesting to talk about their PhD topics and learn from their experiences. But most of all it is cool to meet people from various backgrounds and universities.
Last but not least, the location, food and hospitality in general was amazing. And Tish was amazing in sorting this out for us! We would recommend this writing retreat to any CDT student!
Written by Cohort 2 students Ruben Kruiper and Jamal Umer
For more information about Highwire CDT based at Lancaster University or the Digital Economy CDT Network please click the links.
