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Resources & Retreats
OYF Dissertation Writers' Retreat
Dissertation Writers' Retreats are designed to provide Western PhD candidates with dedicated time for intensive writing. Participating in the Retreat can help you make significant progress in writing your dissertation and help establish good writing habits. The Retreat is an opportunity for participants to remove themselves from daily distractions and time demands to focus exclusively on dissertation writing. As well as dedicated writing time, there will be short check-in mini-seminars and support from expert writing advisors. Dissertation Writers' Retreats are a joint initiative of Western's Own Your Future program and the Writing Support Centre.
The next Dissertation Writers' Retreat will take place June 9 and 10, 2026.
Register for Dissertation Retreat
One-Day Postdoc Writers' Retreat
Postdoc Writers’ Retreats are designed to provide postdoctoral scholars with dedicated time for intensive writing. The Retreat is an opportunity for participants to remove themselves from daily distractions and time demands to focus exclusively on writing. As well as dedicated writing time, there will be short check-in mini-seminars and support from expert writing advisors.
GradWRITE: Writing Handouts
- Best Practices for Academic Publishing, Doherty
- Writing (Successful) Grant Proposals, Burkell
- Writing Effective Scholarships, Culham
- How to Read a Journal Article, Culham
- Tell the Story, Besnier and Morales
- Scholars Before Researchers: On the Centrality of the Dissertation Literature Review in Research Preparation
- Writing a [Scientific] Paper, Whiteside
Our general Writing Support Handouts contain explanations and examples of university appropriate English language grammar and style.
Resources To Get You Started
If you are looking for sources, Western Libraries' subject-specific Research Guides are a good place to begin your search.
Style Guides
Western Libraries has created up-to-date Online Style Guides for academic citations and referencing. Several citation management systems are also available for all Western students, staff, and faculty; this web-based software can help you organize and format your citations.
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies' Electronic Theses & Dissertation Repository site has resources to help you find all the information you might require in order to format and successfully submit your graduate thesis for examination and publication electronically.