Thesis Boot Camp 2019

Thesis Boot Camp this year held on Friday 5^th – Sunday 7^th July 2019.

Drop and give me 20,000 words!

• Are you a mid to late-candidature PhD student struggling with the drafting/writing-up battle?
• Do you put off writing tasks until ‘tomorrow’?
• Are you finding it tough ‘going it alone’?

We have just what you need – Thesis Boot Camp! Dedicated solely to getting words down on paper (or a computer screen), this program is designed to help late-stage doctoral students get over that final hurdle, or to kick-start their writing progress if it has stalled.

Sign up to join other graduate research colleagues at the same candidature stage in a no-excuses, no-time-for-procrastination, take-no-prisoners intensive writing weekend. Not for the faint hearted, Thesis Boot Camp recruits will battle through third-year blues, writer’s block and thesis fatigue to achieve significant progress on their manuscript.

Introductory sessions will include motivational talks, goal setting and strategies for writing quickly and well. Support staff will be on hand and catering will be provided to ensure an encouraging, distraction-free environment. Attendees will be required to complete pre-program planning activities and to commit to their own tangible aims for the weekend, such as completing a thesis chapter draft or similar.

Are you up for the challenge?

Who can attend Thesis Boot Camp?

Thesis Boot Camp is a free event provided by Royal Holloway.  You are an eligible Thesis Boot Camp recruit if you are:

• In the final stages of completing your graduate research degree. That is, you have completed data collection (in whatever form is relevant to your project and discipline) and are currently ‘writing up’. The ultimate aim of Thesis Boot Camp is to write 20,000 words of first draft material. It is not for editing, revising, preparing presentations or grant applications etc. In other words, you must be able to identify the particular chapter or chapter(s) of your thesis that you will specifically work on as part of your Thesis Boot Camp goal.
• Able to clearly identify how you would benefit from an intensive weekend of drafting a particular section of your thesis.
• Willing and available to attend all sessions and to commit to the ethos of dedicated writing required at Thesis Boot Camp.
• Able to provide details of an academic referee to support your application (E.g. your supervisor or member of your supervisory panel; a more senior colleague in your research team etc).

The event is limited to 30 participants and we expect to receive more applications than there are available places. Please note that due to this, we cannot guarantee participation for all eligible applicants. This also means that you should complete all sections of the application in full, with the above eligibility criteria in mind.

Dates and times

The second Royal Holloway Thesis Boot Camp will take place from Friday 5^th July to Sunday 7^th July 2019.

All sessions will take place at the Windsor Building at Egham campus. The program outline is as follows:

• Day 1, Friday 5^th July, 4.00pm - 8.00pm
• Day 2, Saturday 6^th July, 9.30am - 8.00pm
• Day 3, Sunday 7^th July, 9.30am - 8.00pm

Applying

Applications open 16^th April and closes 31^st May 2019

Successful applicants will be notified from 3rd June if they have been accepted into the programme.

Send applications back to Laura.Christierhul.ac.uk