Alice Randall Writing Center Writing Associates Program

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Writing Associates Program Proposal
Dr. Jessica Clark, Writing Center Director

Purpose: to involve CNU students in peer mentoring and learning projects; to enable faculty across the curriculum to participate more fully in writing initiative programs such as the Sophomore Writing Seminar; to encourage campus-wide discussion of teaching and writing

Initial Funding Request: $8,000 to pay a $400/semester stipend to 20 Writing Associates (10 per semester).

Description: Modeled after programs at Brown, Swarthmore, Brigham Young, and University of Richmond, a CNU Writing Associates program will assign trained undergraduates to specific courses with substantive writing components in order to provide students in those courses and the professors teaching them with a resource dedicated to the continued development and enhancement of writing as a tool for demonstrating thinking and learning. Writing Associates, students, and professors all benefit from this collaborative effort, which will serve to enhance both teaching and learning on the CNU campus.

Writing Associate Responsibilities: (approx. 50 hours/semester devoted to a single course)

Complete ENGL 339, Teaching in the Writing Center, with a grade of B or better OR receive a strong faculty endorsement

Complete an application package including a letter of application and a writing sample

Attend 8-10 hours of training in responding to student texts and in consulting strategies

Confer with the course instructor about writing assignment criteria and expectations

Read two sets of complete drafts of formal writing assignments and respond to these in writing within one week (Writing Associates receive drafts two weeks before papers are due)

Hold two conferences (10-15 minutes each) with students about their papers

Participating Faculty Responsibilities:

Agree to structure the course so that it provides at least two writing assignments of substantial length and complexity, across a time period sufficient for student writing, Associate response, and student revision (approximately 4 weeks/assignment)
Attend an orientation session to discuss effective ways of interacting with Writing Associates, as well as an assessment session
Confer with your Writing Associate about writing assignment criteria and expectations
Schedule essay assignments to provide a two-week window for Writing Associates to review papers and give students a chance to revise them.
Communicate to students that papers handed in to Writing Associates should be complete and their very best work, and make participation mandatory, not optional (that is, make clear you won’t accept papers that have not been read by Writing Associates and subsequently revised). Work with Writing Associates to devise a policy to ensure that students turn in their best work to Associates.
Understand that Writing Associates generally will accept the content of student papers as accurate; their focus will be on helping students to present their content in an effective manner—that is, they will help students attend to matters of organization, development, focus, and surface errors.
Understand that Writing Associates are not teaching assistants—they cannot lead discussion sections, hold classes in your absence, or assist with grading.

Student Responsibilities:

Hand in a complete draft—your best possible work—to the Writing Associate two weeks before the paper is due
Meet with your Writing Associate twice during the term
Visit the Writing Center for additional assistance

University Responsibilities:

Limit class size for Writing Associates to a maximum of 25 students (15 is optimal)
Fund stipends
Provide time for faculty administration of program and training of Writing Associates

Administration:
Interested faculty members will request an Associate and agree to meet Participating Faculty Responsibilities set forth above, and assignments of Writing Associates will be made on an as-available basis. Priorities for assigning Writing Associates may include

Sophomore writing seminars (especially courses taught outside the English department) with assignments compatible with the program
Writing Intensive courses with assignments compatible with the program
Sophomore writing seminars and Writing Intensive courses in departments who have recruited Writing Associate participants

The program director will train Associates, meet with participating faculty members in orientation and evaluative sessions, and make course assignments. Where possible, Associates will be assigned to courses in their own disciplines (that is, a psychology major who is a Writing Associate ideally will be assigned a psychology course). Departments should recommend promising students (especially majors) to the program; this might be one way of guaranteeing Writing Associates to their department.

Funding projections: If this program is successful, it could become expensive. It is a promising candidate for something that could be gifted and named. If we reach a point where we have 25-40 of these per term (Brown has 80; Richmond has 60 Associates serving 25 faculty/year), the cost would be $20,000-32,000/year. An alternative to stipend funding is to award one hour of service learning credit (if we have such a component in the new curriculum), making it repeatable up to 3 or 6 times.