Program Description

The Teaching Resource Center offers the Professors as Writers (PAW) Program to support U.Va. faculty in their academic and professional writing. Funded by the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, PAW was developed in response to faculty concerns about writing and publishing. Through workshops, grants for editorial or coaching support, and resources and support for peer writing groups, PAW aims to address writing challenges both new and old—including those posed by the changing nature of academic publishing in the twenty-first century as well as the very practical challenges to writing often experienced by those who write, think, and teach for a living.

PAW offers support for faculty throughout their careers, whether beginning faculty unsure of how to turn their dissertation into a book or publishable articles, mid-career faculty in need of encouragement as they start a new research project or draft their second book, or faculty at any level of experience looking for extra assistance with writing-related concerns. The focus of PAW is not on teaching faculty how to write, but rather on helping faculty who do write deal with the common, but seldom discussed, problems and complexities of writing and publishing. The program is designed to foster conversations about the writing process, destigmatize the writing difficulties faced by many, and provide practical advice from U.Va. colleagues and nationally known experts on the practice of writing and academic publishing. In short, the Professors as Writers Program is designed to help faculty write more easily, more productively, and more happily.

As Program participants report,

• The PAW program’s activities in general helped me to realize that everyone, even seasoned writers, experience the same dreadful writer’s block.
• I was amazed to discover that they [faculty in other departments] agonize over their writing, just like I do.  Thus, I discovered that I was not alone in my anxiety towards the writing process.
• The most effective aspect of the program was the fact that it was flexible enough to allow me to decide what kind of help I needed and how to set everything up.
• The PAW grant helped me to accomplish more than I otherwise would have been able to do during my time on leave. I am further along in my research for the book I hope to finish drafting by the end of the calendar year…I expect that at the end of this calendar year I will be able to say that my output in terms of publication is both qualitatively better and quantitatively greater than it would have been without the grant.