Writing in the Humanities and Arts

Workshop Videos on Writing in the Humanities and Arts

Recorded versions of GWC workshops cover journal article writing and publishing, seminar papers, and conference presentations in the humanities.

Writing in the Humanities and Arts

Blanpain, Kristin. (2008). Academic writing in the humanities and social sciences: A resource for researchers. Acco.
This workbook offers explanations, examples, and exercises designed to help scholars improve the grammar and flow of their writing. It includes discussions of academic style and academic genres (literature reviews, abstracts, research articles, etc.).

Hayot, Eric. (2014). The elements of academic style: Writing for the humanities. Columbia University Press.
This book advises writers on granular concerns, such as sentence structure and grammar, as well as big-picture issues, such as adhering to genre patterns for successful research and publishing and developing productive and rewarding writing habits.

Sword, Helen. (2012). Stylish academic writing. Harvard University Press.

Sword, Helen. (2017). Air & light & time & space: How successful academics write. Harvard University Press.

Dissertations and Theses

Lipkowitz, Elise. (Ed.) (2008). From Concept to Completion: A Dissertation-Writing Guide for History Students. American Historical Association and Oxford University Press.
Twelve historians offer advice on the dissertation-writing process in the field of history. Includes chapters on choosing a topic, obtaining funding, managing the dissertation committee, organizing archival materials, using sources, and overcoming writer’s block.

Bolker, Joan. (1998). Write Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis. Macmillan.
This is one of several “write your dissertation” guides on the market, and it’s one of relatively few that gears itself toward writers of all disciplines. Bolker here is part career counselor, part writing coach, and part therapist. She seems particularly interested in the ways that graduate students block themselves from completing the dissertation through fear, ambivalence, procrastination, etc. We assign chapters 3, 4, and 8 (drafting and revisiong) in many of our dissertation programs, and the whole book works well as a general reference on the dissertation writing process, although some issues might require more specialized help for individual writers.

Clark, Irene L. (2006). Writing the successful thesis and dissertation: Entering the conversation. Prentice Hall Press.
In this book, Clark explains the dissertation as an academic genre and provides tips on the stages of developing and writing the dissertation. This title is regarded by many in composition studies as the best book on dissertation writing. Some of the writing strategies may be oriented more towards the humanities and social sciences, but the book offers excellent advice on writing process issues that is helpful to graduate students in all fields.The book is available as an e-book through the UCLA library.

Lovitts, Barbara E. and Wert, Ellen L. (2008). Developing Quality Dissertations in the Humanities: A Graduate Student’s Guide to Achieving Excellence. 2008. Stylus Publishing.
A concise booklet designed to define and explain expectations for dissertations in the humanities. An e-book version was published in 2023.

Zerubavel, Eviatar. (1999). The clockwork muse: A practical guide to writing theses, dissertations, and books. Harvard University Press.
Working from the premise that "It is methodicalness and routinization. . . that help us produce theses, dissertations, and books," (3), this short book presents a detailed process for coming up with a realistic writing schedule and deadlines. Zerubavel explains management strategies for long writing projects: scheduling regular writing time, making outlines, setting realistic expectations, adhering to deadlines, etc.

Publishing

Journals

This GWC-produced video workshop describes the process of preparing, submitting, and revising a humanities article for publication in a scholarly journal: Introduction to Publishing Journal Articles in the Humanities

Belcher, W. L. (2019). Writing your journal article in twelve weeks: A guide to academic publishing success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (2nd edition)
In this workbook, Belcher breaks down journal article writing into a sequence of manageable tasks and activities. While completing a journal article may take longer than 12 weeks, the workbook provides a roadmap that walks someone new to publishing journal articles through the steps and considerations involved in the process.

Books

The Association of University Presses provides a resource page for prospective faculty authors, including a page that provides resources for finding a publisher. The web page on finding a publisher links to an annual subject area grid that indicates which publishers have strong interests in which fields and sub-fields. There are additional resources on university presses and advice about getting published.

Knox, K. E., & Van Deventer, A. (2023). The Dissertation-to-Book Workbook: Exercises for Developing and Revising Your Book Manuscript. University of Chicago Press.
Allison Van Deventer and Katelyn Knox (GWC alums!) have written a workbook that walks you through the big-picture planning and revising that’s necessary to turn a dissertation into a book. Modeled on Wendy Belcher’s Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks, the workbook takes a structured, manageable approach to evaluating your book’s organizing principle, narrative arc, differences among chapters, outlier chapters, and much more. Chapters 14 and 15 explain how to turn a “zero draft” into an argument-driven chapter and reverse-outline it. On the associated website, you can download a sample chapter, watch explainer videos, read blog posts about book writing and publishing, and sign up to be notified of upcoming workshops. Although this workbook was written with book authors in mind, it’s also proven useful to some dissertation writers who’ve completed most of their chapters and have some time to revise.

Grant and Fellowship Proposals

Gillis, Christina M. Writing Proposals for ACLS Fellowship Competitions. A guide for fellowship applicants in all fields of the humanities, with advice on tailoring the proposal for its audience, creating an effective structure, explaining the project's significance, and positioning research in relation to previous work.

The National Endowment for Humanities offers fellowships and grants that are not usually open to graduate students. However, NEH resources are generally informative for learning how to write about proposed research in the humanities. If you would like to learn more about how to write successful proposals, this web page offers sample narratives from awardees. This article offers additional advice.

Library Research Guides by Subject

These online guides offer discipline-specific links and tips for library research at UCLA. They include links to databases, catalogues, dictionaries, encyclopedias, electronic texts, and online archives.

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