Grants and Writing Resources for Ohio University
Two OHIO doctoral students were among the State Department exchange award recipients the university announced in August 2026. A fiction writer in the creative writing doctoral program won a Critical Language Scholarship and studied Arabic in Meknes, Morocco, living with a host family. A doctoral candidate in instructional technology received a Fulbright Finland Doctoral Award to research artificial intelligence and critical thinking in teacher education with the University of Helsinki and the University of Eastern Finland.
Money for Undergraduate Projects
The Provost's Undergraduate Research Fund awards up to $1,500 for research and creative work in its 2026-27 cycle. The student writes the proposal. A faculty mentor approves it, adds a signed letter of endorsement and takes financial responsibility for the project's spending. Projects must be doable within a year. The fund pays for supplies, travel to do research or present results, transcription, essential publications and participant fees, and every recipient shares the work at the university's spring Expo.
That event is the Student Research and Creative Activity Expo, held each April. Students show research, scholarship and creative work, mostly on posters, and faculty, staff and alumni judge in pairs, each pair taking up to 10 sessions grouped by topic. Students aiming at national scholarships can work with the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards, which advises undergraduates and graduate students.
Graduate Grants and Fellowships
The Graduate College and the Graduate Student Senate run two research and travel awards. The Original Work Award covers direct project costs such as travel, lodging, materials and equipment; a committee of graduate students ranks the proposals, and money goes out in rank order until the pool is spent. The Travel Award helps pay for trips to present original work at seminars, workshops and conferences. Its recipients are drawn by lottery from the eligible proposals.
For 2026-27 the Graduate College lists up to five Named Fellowships a year at $2,000 per semester for fall and spring. Each department nominates one student, usually someone with a full year of graduate study at OHIO and a graduate GPA of 3.00 or higher. Graduate Council also picks the university's nominees for the 2027 MAGS/ProQuest Distinguished Master's Thesis Awards, whose recipients each receive a $750 honorarium according to the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools, and for the CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award.
Research talks get a stage too. At the 2026 Three Minute Thesis finals in March, 25 graduate students had three minutes each to explain their thesis or dissertation research. The winner took a $2,000 top prize and went on to the MAGS regional round.
Journals and English Scholarships
Sphere is, by its description, OU's only and oldest undergraduate literary magazine. It publishes fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and art by OU students. The English department publishes New Ohio Review. Quarter After Eight, listed with it on the department's creative writing page, is devoted to the exploration of innovative writing.
Most English department scholarships ask for a writing sample or an essay. The Hollis Summers Scholarship asks for a one-page interpretation of the poem "Adoption" plus a writing sample of up to five pages. The Dean McWilliams Memorial Scholarship asks first-, second- and third-year majors for a short essay on the value of studying literature today. Amounts vary with endowment proceeds.
Writing Help and the TAD Process
The Writing Commons in the Academic Achievement Center is free to all Ohio University students. Undergraduates meet peer tutors in Bromley Hall 032 or on Teams. Professional tutors work online with undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs on theses, dissertations, journal articles, grants and conference talks; graduate students email to be matched with one. The Graduate College's Dissertation Writing Support Program adds a year-long writing community for graduate students and Honors Tutorial College writers, with weekly virtual writing groups and monthly retreats.
Every thesis and dissertation writer must complete the process run by Thesis and Dissertation Services to graduate. TAD reviews formatting and grants final approval, and email to tad@ohio.edu is the only official way to submit. Its FAQ explains that the office has no staff to make corrections for students. Theses are published online through OhioLINK, and dissertations go to OhioLINK and ProQuest.
Before a dissertation goes to TAD for format review, our editors can check its grammar, consistency and formatting. See our Ohio University dissertation and thesis editing and Ohio University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.
From Our Writing Guides
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Managing Editor of Editors For Students. Links checked October 2026.
Editors For Students is an independent editorial service and is not affiliated with Ohio University, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your OHIO writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.