Creating a Community of Writers: Participant Perception of the Impact of a Writing Retreat on Scholarly Productivity

An important component of the academic faculty role is dissemination of knowledge through manuscript publication. Ways to facilitate this scholarship are important to academic career progression. One approach is a writing retreat, which is a structured time to write and receive peer review of writing occurring over multiple, sequential days. This paper reports on an annual multi-day writing retreat originally consisting of five days and four nights. This was a mixed method descriptive evaluation. Fifty-three of the 56 participants from the seven writing retreats from 2010 to 2016 were contacted via email to complete an on-line quantitative and qualitative survey. Thirty-one responded for a response rate of 59%. Eleven participants from the 2017 writing retreat participated in a focus group discussion. Qualitative comments were analyzed using thematic analysis procedures. The majority of participants agreed that the writing retreat enhanced their overall scholarly activity and reported their knowledge and motivation to write increased as a result of participation. Participants valued the dedicated time for writing, peer review of writing, and structured time for discussions about writing and publishing. This was especially true for participants who attended two or more times. A writing retreat has value in supporting faculty to complete dissemination of research and to accomplish academic promotions.