Good day Anne

Thank you for the workshop. Solani`s presentation was engaging and intriguing. I finally got the motivation I needed to write an article for publication. Thank You!!

Ntombodidi Motseke 

Dear Solani

I hope you are doing well,

Article number 10 is here and soon to be published, with three more under review. It is hard to believe that before 7 March 2019, I had zero published articles in my name. I just want to share that your workshops have transformed me from day one. I am grateful to you for instilling the belief in me and providing me with the tools to become a better scholar. You are leadership par excellence, and I continue to rave about your name to my colleagues and students and encourage them to attend your workshops. The practical and personal nature of how you deliver your workshops is fantastic. Many people ask me how I could complete my PhD in record time while also lecturing and publishing, and my response is that they should experience your magic and passion for scholarly writing.

I am forever grateful for your advice and willingness to share your craft with us.

Regards,

Dr. Vusi Mshayisa MSc (WUR), MTech (CPUT), PhD (CPUT)

Dear Solani

You have NO idea how thrilled I was with not only seeing you but also the tone you set for accountability and responsibility by staff It was refreshing and really made academics sit up and listen. We have provided so many career opportunities and need to see the fruit of such investment.

I have had an inspiring sojourn at SPU and have loved every challenge and opportunity. Nothing like a great building project!!

I retire next year and so it has been a great way to bring my career full circle.

Look forward to seeing you in person, sometime soon. I do want to write again and hopefully you will push me to do so J.

You are such an asset to SA, hope you are getting the recognition you deserve.

Kind regards and thanks again for working with our staff … here’s to many more such events.

Prof. Mary Jean Baxen

Deputy Vice Chancellor: Academic

Good morning Mr Sols,

It was indeed a pleasure meeting you. You opened my eyes in ways I never thought were possible for me. I have also noted the work ethic in which you carry; including the time frames of feedback. You made this writing thing seem like a mission possible.

Regards,
Thandokazi Mbane, Nelson Mandela University

Good day Solani

Let me first express how much this week has meant to me. It has not only helped me in my article writing skills, but way beyond that. Your passion for your work and your commitment to making a contribution to our country touched me from the onset. I can relate to this very much. I am always extending myself to develop some of my colleagues and our interns in various way. I even coordinate our peer help program where I mentor students as best I can. When I started this course on Monday, I was feeling down, disheartened and I was physically ill. I had hit a low in my career as I was feeling exhausted, wondering if my commitment to making a contribution to the students of NMU and our country at large was worth it (I even left Stellenbosch University 2 years ago to better fulfil this commitment). Meeting you and seeing how easily and passionately you share your knowledge, time and experience has reaffirmed that I should not become despondent. I thank you for that, even though you did not even realise the impact you were having on me.

Dr Angelique McConney

Senior Clinical Psychologist

Solani is amazing! I’ve published one paper and a book chapter in the works, presented at conferences, did keynotes, reviewed conference papers, etc. However, I learnt a lot from this session that I never realised before! Thank you for the opportunity

It was an amazing journey. Would love to work more closely on converting my thesis to a book and learn more on writing book chapters

The individual consultation was good

The writing retreat made me feel more confident and capable of submitting abstracts to A list journals as compared to always submitting to B list. The facilitator has an amazing personality and is able to convey difficult themes in a manner that is easy to understand and put into practice. I particularly enjoyed the first day and was amazed at how the facilitator had managed to keep me engaged for the entire duration. Overall it was an amazing experience and I am appreciative to the organisers for this opportunity.

This was lovely and useful, I just wish we could be away from our actual work to not get interrupted 🙂 but none the less THANK YOU

Invaluable, thank you. Athough this paper I had already written for my PhD by publication, this retreat has made me see how papers can be written just for publication and I intend to do this in future. I already have 2 in mind, and now know how to prepare my honours students that I uspervise for possible publication

I thought this was excellent (it is exactly what we required). Unfortunately, if the motivation to write and new knowledge about writing is not combined with the opportunity to write (I had to try and juggle a lot of marking with the retreat, and writing an article actually takes significant focus) then I fear that research output will be limited.

the online writers retreat on day 2-4 with the individual slots did not keep me writing as I then engaged with other work commitments that came up. It was further made difficult by the fact that this was during a time where immediate responses were needed in terms of timetabling, assessment issues and finalization of lecturers. I would love an away from campus retreat as I know the value. I was able to finalise my entire Masters proposaldefense during a weekend retreat. I also had some reservations on Day one of the Online retreat as I found the background to publishing was not as valuable as actual writing support, however after my first one on one I had a better understanding of his process. I actually realise that I was too focused on the Academic/research part as opposed to getting published. I feel that I still need to learn more about how to go about writing an Action research based article, which we did not have time to do now. I am planning on collaborating with colleagues who were on this retreat: How do I research a current campus issue (problem/action research) and write an article on that?

Recommendation: We have the retreat at least twice a year.

I definitely learned a lot. However I definitely see value in a physical retreat with physical contact with the facilitator and colleagues.

This was an amazing experience, and so valuable. It would be great to have this away from campus as it gives you more time there to focus on this, but the virtual format was still very valuable. Thank you for this opportunity.

Mr. Solani Ngobeni’s passion for the art of publishing and scholarly engagement was infectious and I cannot wait for the next retreat facilitated by him

The facilitator guided us in the necessary steps to take in completing an article but his focus was very much on research-based articles so it was challenging to get guidance on conceptual articles.

Thank you for the opportunity to attend the writers retreat. I found the 1st day extremely valuable. I found the rest of days briefing sessions were repetitive. The individual sessions were helpful, however I found it challenging to write my article during this period. I think the timing of the writing retreat could be re-looked for the next time, since it was scheduled just before 2nd semester start which meant that I had to also prepare for lectures and ensuring that everything is in order. Thank you again, I am motivated to continue to write and start publishing.

Hi Solani
Thanks very much. Special memories of an excellent course. You know your business.
Kind regards
Mike

Thank you Solani,

The week away provided for some introspection and reflection on my side. I hope that I will be granted another opportunity and firmly believe that all academics should have this session with you,  Solani. You are truly amazing in your approach and delivery of the program. I wish you all of the best for your future projects.

With sincere admiration….

Lucrecia Valentine

Lecturer, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Cape Peninsula University of Technology | #WeAreCPUT

Dear Solani

Once again thank you for your support. My article was approved by the editorial committee and submitted for peer review.

Take care

MP DA COSTA
CPUT

Dear Lara and Solani

Thank you so much for the opportunity to attend the Writing Retreat. I greatly benefited from the quiet time to focus on writing.

Solani, your input was invaluable. You were extremely helpful and generous. Thank you Solani!! I had a wonderful time! I look forward to more writing in future.

Kind Regards

Milia Lorraine Khoury
Lecturer in Theory of Art and Design

Dear Solani

Thank you very much for your informative workshop and your patient coaching of us participants..
As I said I really enjoyed listening to you!
I am looking forward to the writing retreat early next year!

Warm regards

Dr Corrie Uys

Thank you Solani for unselfishly sharing your knowledge and expertise. The workshop was educational and it inspired many of us who are inexperienced in scholarly publishing.
We appreciate the depth and detail of the wealth of information shared. We look forward to more developmental support from the UMP Research department.

Kind regards

Nandipha Nonkwelo, UMP

Dear Solani
Thank you for the recent Scholarly Publishing workshop. I found it extremely meaningful and inspiring and cannot wait to start planning an article.

Kind regards

Vanessa Rademeyer
Academic Support Co-ordinator
School of Early Childhood Development
University of Mpumalanga

Thank you for a most productive period under your tutorage. The sessions were very well planned and your professionalism was of the best I have experienced. I am very encouraged and will continue to publish and attend the other workshops planned for this year.

MP DA COSTA
Lecturer: Business and Information Administration (OMT)

Dear Solani

I was very pleased to have had the opportunity to attend the Writers workshop you hosted, I found it to be extremely informative and I have definitely learnt a lot.
I look forward to attending the Writers retreat in October and getting an article from my Masters published. Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Teneille Venter (MA Bio: NMMU)
Lecturer: Sports Management Department

Good Morning Solani

It was a pleasure for us and our ears to hear such a wonderful speech on Writing for Scholarly Publication Workshop. The points which you covered were so interesting that it has open our eyes as well as minds.

I truly appreciate the way you covered each and every topic in detail and also cleared our doubts.

I once again would like to thank you for such a wonderful speech and hope to get a chance to hear such speeches during Writing Retreat in June.

Yours sincerely

Dear Solani

Thank you so much for making writing an abstract and an article so much easier and effortless, I have learnt a lot and this was such an interesting subject to explore further especially as a junior researcher with aspiration to write within the public policy and administration sector.

You were excellent!

Enkosi
Nkosazana, CPUT

Dear Solani and Lara

I want to say a big thank you to CPUT and Mr Ngobeni for the three day workshop.

Even though I missed some parts due to having to come back to the office as we are short-staffed I really found the course of immense value to me as an emerging researcher. The background information about the publishing industry in general, the technical edit that journal editors do and what an abstract needs to have were all great sessions that taught me valuable lessons. I want to especially thank Mr Ngobeni for inspiring me as an emerging researcher to dream big and see myself as a future textbook or trade author in the near future. I went in with an expectation to understand how to write a journal article and came out with so much more. I already have some article, chapter and book ideas that I want to pursue. Just this past Friday I had to leave the workshop for a meeting with academics from Mussouri State University and as we were talking I was thinking of possible points of collaboration with them.

I have been telling all my colleagues in the Media Department and elsewhere to take the time and attend the course as it could change the way they see their research role.

Regards,

Asanda Ngoasheng
Cape Peninsula University of Technology