The Great History Write-Off 2016

On Saturday 20th August 2016, New History Lab and the Society for Postgraduates in English Language and Literature (SPELL) are really excited to present The Great History Write-Off!

What's that, then?

Do you have a thesis or dissertation to write? Inspired by the format of Thesis Bootcamp, The Great History Write-Off is a one-day intensive writing event aiming to help you make real progress. The idea is to help participants write more words in a day than they ever thought they could - we recommend setting a target of 5,000 words. We provide a quiet workspace with PCs and steady supplies of tea and coffee, cake and other snacks (as well as a sandwich lunch!) throughout the day - all you have to do is write!

The day is tightly structured. We kick off at 9.45am, with three 55-min writing sessions interspersed with 5-min breaks where you can nip to the bathroom or grab a snack. Then there’ll be an hour for lunch (provided by us, but please feel free to bring your own if you’d prefer), after which we get back to it – three more writing sessions with short breaks in between. There will be rewards throughout the day as you reach various word-count milestones, and we’ll finish off by congratulating you all on your Write-Off achievement - there might even be a special something for the person who’s written the most!

Who is the GHWO aimed at?

The event is aimed at postgraduate students in the History and English departments who are currently working on a dissertation or thesis. 

Do I need to do any preparation in advance of GHWO?

The day is supposed to be devoted to writing, not researching – so in order to get the most out of the event, we recommend you develop a detailed plan of the chapter or section you are planning to write on the day. Everyone knows that it’s so easy to distract yourself from actually writing by doing little corners of extra research or getting bogged down in formatting – don’t let yourself fall into that trap!

The event will be held in a PC room, so if you usually work on a laptop you won’t need to bring it with you – but make sure any files you might need are easily accessible, either on a USB stick or on your university drive. Edited 12/07/16 to add: Because of maintenance going on around the university site over the summer, PC rooms are now unavailable for booking, so you will now need to bring a laptop with you to work on.

How do I sign up?

Register for the event by heading to Eventbrite. Registration closes at midday on 13th August. Please bear in mind that spaces are limited, so don’t hang about!

I have questions!

Email newhistorylab@le.ac.uk and we’ll do our best to answer them!