![Students sitting at a conference table talking](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2025-01/WritingWorkshop.JPG.resize.JPG?itok=aVzxdxHr) # CSWR Workshops Help Scholars Master the Art of Writing January 28, 2025 By Jeffrey Blackwell The role of an academic is to explore the chronicles of the past, pursue new ideas and concepts through research and experimentation, and then share those findings, discoveries, and conclusions with peers and, ultimately, the public. The written word is still the quintessential portal from the academic mind to the research community and beyond through scholarly papers, books, and articles, even in the electronic and social media age. What is vital in today’s media-centric landscape is the art of writing with the eyes of the reader in mind. Bearing these realities in mind, the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) is sharing the expertise of its researchers and staff to help Harvard students, scholars, researchers, and affiliates improve their writing skills through a series of workshops exploring the process of writing, creativity, peer editing, and publication. “The hardest thing is getting people used to critique and understanding that the critique is constructive,” said Aaron Ullrey, Research Associate, Transcendence and Transformation, and Writing and Editing Specialist at the CSWR. “Academic editing is an act of love. Feedback on writing is our love language, so remember that, even when you receive harsh commentary, it’s a strange love, but love nonetheless.” The series of workshops at the CSWR kicked off on Jan. 17 with a peer editing class led by Ullrey. A second session explored how to craft compelling article pitches to editors, led by Rachael Petersen, a writer, scholar, and Program Lead for the “Thinking with Plants and Fungi” initiative at the CSWR. A third session focused on the creative art of revision led by Sherah Bloor, a poet and editor-in-chief of Peripheries: A Journal of Word, Image, and Sound. Nearly 20 participants from around the University registered for the three sessions. In the peer editing workshop, students were asked to bring a 1,000-word paper to share with the class. In groups of three or four, students exchanged papers, which were read out loud by someone other than the author. Then, each member of the group commented on and suggested to the author changes to the flow of the writing, transitions, use of quotes, and other aspects of the piece that worked. “Ideally, having these peer editing workshops is a chance to model constructive critique, model reading one another's work, and also to do so in a comfortable place,” said Ullrey. “One of the great powers of the CSWR is conviviality; its connection with people is its friendliness and a place where we can be more than just academics but humans. So, sharing your work in a place where other people are on your side and have your back and your best interests is essential.” Sarah Adegbite, a first-year Master of Theological Studies student at Harvard Divinity School, brought a paper she wrote last term on Black women’s literature and theology. In it, she said, she is reimagining what being Black means in relation to Christian theology. “I thought hearing my rough draft read aloud was like someone else had written it, and I was seeing it for the first time,” she said. “That gave me a new way to think about how people understand my work because when you’re so into something, you know what you’re saying, but hearing them talking about it was clarifying and helpful. I enjoyed that process.” The workshops also offered guidance for writing projects beyond class papers read by a professor paid to edit and evaluate students’ work. Outside the university experience, editors, publishers, and other gatekeepers of written work are less obligated to read or even respond to papers, articles, and manuscripts submitted for publication. Rachael Petersen’s creative writing has been featured both online and in print magazines, such as Aeon, The Sun, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, The Rumpus, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, The Outline, and Peripheries. During her workshop, she shared the fundamentals of crafting a pitch for busy editors and publishers, emphasizing that the first step in creating a pitch is to pause and reflect on why, as a scholar or writer, you want to submit work to this publication. “That could include anything from telling a compelling story about a topic you care about or know deeply to reaching a broader audience in academic publishing or demonstrating the ongoing relevance of the humanities,” Petersen said. “A lot of people have never taken this step before. So, thinking about it as a message, you submit it to an editor to convince them to publish your work.” In the workshop, participants dissected several successful pitches. They distilled them into three basic questions: why the story matters to the writer, why it matters to the publication, and why the author is the best person for the project. “I hope they take away the basic skill set needed to formulate a pitch,” Petersen said. “I hope they take away that paradigm shift of writing a pitch in a compelling way and through the lens of story rather than argument. Academics are trained to make arguments, but reframing pitches as stories is really important.” Jordan Ahmed, a first-year MDiv student at the Harvard Divinity School, brought one of his poems to the workshop in hopes of receiving valuable suggestions about editing and refining his verse. “I am a writer, and I feel like I’ve needed more editing support,” he said. “I was especially worried about whether my piece was clear, and to hear it out loud, I was surprised and happy that there were lots of parts that I thought were unclear that were clear.” Sherah Bloor, a poet and editor-in-chief of the CSWR’s Peripheries, is familiar with Ahmed’s problem. She said many writers fall into the classic image that creative inspiration explodes from the mind and onto the page in frantic scribbling, magically flowing into beautiful prose. But she prefers the idea of a muse. ![Students sitting at a conference table listening to the instructor](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2025-01/WritingWorkshop.SherahBloor.JPG.resize.JPG?itok=6sUJUuSD) Sherah Bloor, poet and editor-in-chief of CSWR’s Peripheries, leads a workshop on the tricks and tools of editing and revising poetry. Photo by Ashley Zigman.“I think the idea of instantly perfect prose is very damaging to creative writing and writers,” Bloor said. “I want to promote another scene where we may gather language from various sources, write, and then begin editing. That’s when the magic happens. That’s when the play or poem or story takes over and teaches us what it wants to become, where it takes on a life of its own, beyond the confines of our egos, and can surprise us.” The CSWR is planning additional sessions on Feb. 28 and March 28. Gosia Sklodowska, Executive Director of the CSWR, said this workshop and others aim to provide platforms and tools for researchers to share their work with various audiences inside and outside academia. “Scholars often find their work confined to academic journals hidden behind paywalls, limiting their readership to a narrow audience,” she said. “We are now thrilled to make our in-house experts available to the Harvard community and offer workshops that can benefit students and researchers looking for ways to amplify their voice and share their work more broadly.” Ahmed said the workshop gave him new tools for editing and thinking about his work. He is looking forward to future writing sessions at the Center. “I think I found just another way of looking at editing and process,” he said. “It also gave me the motivation to continue working on the poem I brought to the workshop, and other writing projects.”