Refresh, Restart, Renew: The Power behind PhD Writing Retreats

Abstract: Attrition rates of doctoral students in North America indicate that an estimated 40-50% of students do not complete their doctoral education (Golde, 2005; Rigler et al., 2017). As such, institutions actively seek new retention and graduation support strategies for their doctoral students (Davis et al., 2016). Doctoral students encounter nuanced challenges particularly related to academic writing, which can be a substantial source of stress or anxiety and limited resources exist to support and prepare students (Buckley et al., 2021). Moreover, professionals and students alike experience difficulty in setting aside dedicated time to write due to personal and professional demands (Cope et al., 2016).
An emerging strategy to address the unique needs of doctoral students and developing professionals includes writing retreats, which provide dedicated time and space to write and collaborate outside of one’s typical daily tasks and responsibilities. Research indicates that retreats can serve as a community of emotional and social support for attendees, leading to benefits such as enhanced confidence and productivity (Benevenuti et al., 2017; Buckley et al., 2021) and newly developed collegial partnerships (Cope et al., 2016). Yet existing research is limited in understanding the long-term effects of attending such retreats (Davis et al., 2016). Moreover, retreat design varies greatly depending on group goals, size, and time, with design considerations including space, facilitation style, structured and unstructured writing activities, professional support, and social activity to encourage creativity, productivity, and reflection (Stevenson, 2020), which adds complexity when planning a writing retreat.
The primary research questions in this study are: 1) What are the perceived and attained benefits to participants attending a writing retreat?; 2) What long term effects, if any, do writing retreats offer to participants?; and 3) What incentivizes or disincentivizes a participant from attending or not attending a writing retreat? Study participants include Ph.D. students, candidates, and alum who attend or graduated from the Human Resource Development Ph.D. program at The University of Texas at Tyler. In addition, the experiences of faculty and staff who supported the writing retreat will also be collected.
A mixed methods methodology is appropriate for this study as it allows us to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, and then enables our ability to explore the benefits and long-term effect of participation in a writing retreat “from different viewpoints and through diverse research lenses” (Shorten & Smith, 2017, p. 74). A Qualtrics survey will be used to collect feedback on the participants’ experience during the retreat, as well as the benefits attained because of participation in the writing retreat. In addition, study participants will be invited to participate in a Zoom® interview to deepen our understanding of their experience. The survey will be sent to the 16 writing retreat participants, and all writing retreat participants, faculty, and staff will be invited to participate in a virtual interview. The quantitative and qualitative data collected will be analyzed in parallel, meaning the “data integration [will occur] during [the] interpretation phase after … data analyses” (Shorten & Smith, 2017, p. 74).
Anecdotal feedback during the retreat suggested that participants benefitted from participation in the writing retreat, and the data collected in this study will uncover how individuals benefitted and to what degree. In addition, the study will explore the long-term benefits of participation in the retreat and how participation contributed to the attainment of research goals like advancement towards completing a dissertation or a manuscript for journal submission. The results of this study will also reveal how faculty and staff consultations supported individual participants’ success. As the retreat has been hosted twice by the HRD Ph.D. program, this survey seeks to uncover what incentivizes participation in the retreat one or multiple years.
This study answers the call for more research on the long-term impacts of participation in a writing retreat (Mattsson et al., 2020). Prior studies revealed that writing retreats generate more tangible research and writing activity (Murray & Newton, 2009); however, no prior studies have integrated the perspectives of faculty and staff consultants nor looked at the long-term benefits that participation in writing retreats can have on research and academic outcomes (Davis et al., 2016). The findings from this study can also be applied broadly across disciplines and doctoral programs. Additionally, retreat handouts and schedule will be made available to institutions looking to host a similar retreat. This research contributes to existing literature on academic writing by uncovering strategies to retain and graduate doctoral students, incentivize greater participation in writing retreats, and uncover the potential benefits and long-term effects of participation.