Professional Development
Trainee
Lilliam Ambroggio, PhD
Associate Professor
Children's Hospital Colorado
Aurora, Colorado, United States
Todd Florin, MD, MSCE (he/him/his)
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Sarah Beal, PhD (she/her/hers)
Associate Professor
Cincinnati Children's Hospital/University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Michael Tchou, MD, MSc (he/him/his)
Assistant Professor
Pediatrics
University of Colorado-Anschutz and Children's Hospital Colorado
Aurora, Colorado, United States
Workshop
Description: Writing is integral to decisions about promotion, regardless of track, at every academic institution. Academic writing includes scientific manuscripts, book chapters, policy statements, commentaries, review articles, curriculum development, abstracts, guidelines etc. There are many barriers to being a productive writer, including finding the time, finding the motivation, overcoming perfectionism, and overcoming social media and other distractions. The overall goal of this workshop is to provide attendees with proven strategies to be a productive academic writer. We will present both proven strategies (e.g., blocking time on one’s calendar to write) and technology (e.g., task management apps) that can be used by participants to enhance their writing productivity. The workshop will be a combination of didactic and hands on learning to enable participants to practice some of the tools that are introduced in the session, where participants will begin developing their own writing strategy. Activities during this session will include setting short and long-term writing goals, forming writing groups that will continue after the session concludes, tracking one’s writing time using statistical process control methods, and trialing different productivity apps. Participants will leave the workshop with a toolkit of potential strategies and a personal strategy plan for their own writing, to trial in the weeks after the workshop.