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Writing Fellows

For Students
For Faculty

For Students - Montserrat Writing Fellows Program

What Is a Writing Fellow?

  • A Writing Fellow is a tutor from the Writer's Workshop who is assigned to work with you on the writing in your Montserrat seminar. The Writing Fellow meets with the professir and discusses the syllabus for your class, attends class at least once, and stays in touch with you and your professor.
  • Writing Fellows are tutors in the Writer's Workshop and have completed the tutor education course, Composition Theory and Pedagogy.
  • Writing Fellows are for your Montserrat seminar only but not all Montserrat seminars have Writing Fellows. Your professor has requested to have a writing fellow for your class.

Working With Your Writing Fellow:

  • Writing Fellows can meet with you to talk about the writing in your course, whether Moodle postings, journals, or drafts of formal papers.
  • Writing Fellows are ready to assist you with brainstorming ideas for a paper, organizing, revising, proofreading, and citing sources.
  • Writing Fellows can also assist with critical reading strategies.

What Writing Fellows Can Not Do:

  • Writing Fellows do not grade or guarantee good grades.
  • Writing Fellows can not tell you what to write or write the paper for you.

Your Responsibilities as a Student:

  • Plan ahead and make an appointment to see the Writing Fellow a few days (or even a week) before the paper is due. Do not e-mail your Writing Fellow the night before a paper is due with the expectation that the Fellow will be available for a session.
  • Come to your session prepared with thoughts and ideas about the assignment. Bring the assignment, notes, books, etc.
  • Allow time to make any necessary revisions.

 

For Faculty

Since the inception of the Montserrat Program, the Writer's Workshop has worked to find and efficient model for supporting first-year writing. For the first two years of the program, the Writer's Workshop offered walk-in hours in the residence halls in addition to regular hours in our location in Dinand Library. Unfortunately, this model did not completely meet the students' needs for writing support.

For AY10.11, the Writer's Workshop began a Writing Fellows program that provided more individualized and contextualized writing support for Montserrat courses. While students still had complete access to the Writer's Workshop services, this optional program offered Montserrat faculty the opportunity to learn more about the Writer's Workshop and the benefits of working with dedicated writing tutors. The Writing Fellows model assigns two writing tutors to a Montserrat seminar for the duration of the two-semester course. With this model, tutors work closely with faculty and students to meet the challenges of first-year writing.

All the writing tutors who work for the Writer's Workshop have successfully completed a 300-level English course, Composition Theory and Pedagogy, where they read about writing theory, write about writing theory, conduct research on writing in the disciplines, and write a final philosophy and pedagogy paper.

While the majority of writing tutors are English majors, tutors also come from the majors of political science, sociology, chemistry, religious studies, classics, and the teacher education program. As directory, I will strive to find the best fit for each faculty and classroom.

Below are the expected roles for Writing Fellows and participating Faculty.

Roles of Writing Fellows

  • Fellows receive a class syllabus and meet with the faculty member to become familiar with the faculty's expectations with regard to reading and writing.
  • Fellows visit the classroom for a 5-10 minute presentation to meet the students, talk about their roles as Writing Fellows, and describe other services offered by the Writer's Workshop.
  • Fellows work to create monitoring relationships with first-year students.
  • Fellows make individual appointments with students to work on the writing process: brainstorming, developing a thesis or argument, organization of ideas, paragraph development, editing and proofreading final product.
  • Fellows can help students summarize/respond to reading, increase vocabulary, and assist with revising.
  • Fellows are available to assist faculty member with reading drafts (feedback, not grading) of writing assignments.
  • Fellows can use Writer's Workshop space to facilitate reading and writing groups based on the course material.
  • In most cases, Fellows are able to attend class to make presentations or assist with peer review

Writing Fellows can not be expected to do the reading for your course, act as a teaching assistant, or proctor an exam.

Roles of Faculty

  • Faculty meet with the director for an orientation to the program.
  • At the beginning of the semester, faculty meet with the Fellows to share syllabi and writing assignments (both formal and informal).
  • Faculty communicate with Writing Fellows either face-to-face or by e-mail to keep the Fellows informed of writing assignments and the needs of students.
  • Faculty communicate with their students about the roles of the Writing Fellows in their course. Faculty also remind the students about the Writing Fellows and encourage the students to make appointments.
  • Faculty share their evaluation criteria with the Writing Fellows. Do criteria change from assignment to assignment?
  • If faculty wish to make meetings with Writing Fellows mandatory, please state that on your syllabus and work out the logistics with the Writing Fellows.

If you are interested in having a team of Writing Fellows for your Montserrat course, please contact me at ehays@holycross.edu.