http://gremlin.ischool.utexas.edu/iwg/
Here are his words:
The students of the Fall 2008 Scholarly Writing in Information Studies course thought it would be a good idea to continue a weekly meeting so that Ph.D. students could meet and review each other's work. The central theme of the writing class was this: academic writing is not an innate skill and the only way to become better at it is to write regularly and share your work with others. I think all of us who took the class found it refreshing to focus solely on writing all semester and surprisingly easy to subject ourselves to the reviews of our peers. We started by outlining a goal for the end of the semester and then read drafts of each other's work throughout the semester.
The ground rules for the course were simple, each of us submitted works in progress to the group (course papers, qualifying papers, proposal drafts, etc.) at least two or three days prior to meeting. Each person was given time to share their reactions to the work with the writer and if the writer chose, notes from the review were made available. Everyone who participated was responsible for both reading and reviewing the work of others and submitting work of their own at least once during the semester.
I've asked to reserve 556 from 3-4:30PM on Friday this semester so that we can meet and continue the writers group outside of an official designated course. I know that not everyone can make regular meetings during this time, but room scheduling is tighter this semester and this is the best time to get this space during a weekday.
If enough of us are interested in participating in this I will be happy to manage the scheduling and file management issues. If we do agree to do it, I think it's only fair that anyone who chooses to come must actually have read the work and be willing to contribute their thoughts. It will not be a venue to just come and listen in.
