The Power Hour of Writing: An empirical evaluation of our online writing community

Abstract

The “Power Hour of Writing” is an institution-led approach which brings together staff and postgraduate research students in a community that encourages participants to write regularly as part of their academic practice, helping to develop sustainable habits. This research into the “Power Hour of Writing” combines analysis of participant numbers with qualitative analysis of free text responses from online surveys taken at three different time points. Three themes emerged and were evident across all three surveys, independent of their time point: The importance of community; making writing a legitimate part of people’s everyday work; and accountability, which is built into the structure of the “Power Hour Of Writing”. Our research indicates that regular, short timeslots for writing can have a valuable impact on staff and postgraduate researchers. Not only did this intervention help build the community at a time while people were working even more in isolation due to the pandemic, but it also highlighted to participants that protecting time for writing benefits their work.