THE GRADUATE WRITING COMMUNITY: an in-person and virtual community for UC Berkeley graduate students to come together and make progress in their writing.

Academic writing is a core competency all graduate students need to develop over the course of their degree programs. Even for those who are accomplished writers, writing can be difficult. Whether you are just beginning your program—working on your course notes and seminar papers—or you are far along in the dissertation writing process, having a supportive community to discuss challenges and accomplishments can be vital to your success. The purpose of the Graduate Writing Community is to assist you in making concrete writing goals each week and in developing a regular writing schedule.

As a member of the Graduate Writing Community, each week you will:

1) Contribute to a bCourses discussion thread with the other graduate students in your small Discussion Group, including a brief check-in (What are your writing goals for this week?) and check-out (How did your writing go this week?). Each Discussion Group is facilitated by one of the Graduate Writing Consultants.

2) Attend at least one in-person Writing Session on campus, where you will work independently on your own writing projects. There are a number of drop-in sessions throughout the week, and you can attend any session that works with your schedule.

The Graduate Writing Community for Spring 2026 will begin on Monday, February 2, 2026, and run through Friday, May 1, 2026; it is open to all UC Berkeley graduate students. The Graduate Writing Community is not a course and there are no grades; rather, it is a mutually supportive peer network.

If you would like to participate in the Spring 2026 Graduate Writing Community, please complete the Spring 2026 Registration Form by 5 p.m. PT on Wednesday, January 28, 2026. Registered students will receive a confirmation email from the Graduate Writing Community by Friday, January 30, 2026.

If you have any questions or comments, including about disability-related accommodations, please contact the Graduate Writing Center ([email protected]).

The Graduate Division offers several credit-bearing courses for graduate students to develop professional-level skills in teaching, mentoring, and writing, as part of its Graduate Student Professional Development Program (GSPDP). The Graduate Writing Center offers the following course every spring semester:

GSPDP 320: Academic Writing for Graduate Students

Units and Grade Options: 2-unit course, graded S/U
Course Title: Graduate Student Professional Development Program (GSPDP) 320: Academic Writing for Graduate Students
Course Format: Seminar
Instructor: Sabrina Soracco, Director, Graduate Division Graduate Writing Center

Course Description
The purpose of this course is to provide graduate students with formal instruction in the genres and mechanics of academic writing at the graduate and professorial level. Through presentations, readings, discussion, and weekly peer editing, graduate students will develop writing and editing skills necessary for their success as graduate students and future faculty.

Course Goals

• to familiarize graduate students with the different genres of academic writing (e.g., seminar papers, journal articles, books, grant proposals, dissertation prospecti, etc.) and how these genres vary from discipline to discipline;
• to help graduate students become better writers by analyzing writing on both the micro (sentence) and macro (organizational) levels;
• to teach graduate students basic skills of professional editing so that they can become better editors of their own work and that of peers;
• to enable graduate students to apply these skills to a piece of their own writing and to the writing of peers.

For more information about this course, please contact the Graduate Writing Center ([email protected]).

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