Writing program seeks faculty partners for fall

Writing fellows and their faculty partner in conversation
Writing fellows and their faculty partner in conversation

In collaboration with the Center for Transformative Teaching, the Writing Center is seeking 1-2 faculty members interested in incorporating writing fellows into one of their courses during the fall semester. Writing fellows are primarily undergraduate Writing Center consultants who work in close partnership with faculty to support student writing in individual classes across the disciplines. Each fellow works one-to-one with 8-12 students on specific writing assignments, gives written feedback on rough drafts, and holds in-person or Zoom conferences to help students revise their writing before submitting a final draft to faculty.

How do writing fellows help students?
Writing fellows talk through ideas and problems with students to help them figure out how to express their own ideas as clearly and effectively as possible. They are not editors or proofreaders; rather, they are peers who help students meet their writing goals in these courses and become stronger, more confident writers and thinkers.

What faculty partners say.
“Working with the writing fellow made me more cognizant of my own writing process and … the kinds of things that are opaque to students as they are learning to improve their writing.”

“Since it integrates directly into courses and requires students to participate (instead of just visiting the Writing Center), the program helps professors be more effective and time-efficient in assigning more writing in their courses, which benefits students.”

What student participants say.
“The fellow helped me to look at developing my ideas a step further for this paper, so I have been able to take that skill and use it in all of my writing.”

“It was nice to have someone not in the sciences read over the paper who is more versed in English and writing. It was good to have another perspective.”

How to partner with the program.
To be eligible, faculty members should be teaching a course in the fall with an enrollment between 8-32 students. The course should include at least two significant writing assignments, with a schedule that allows for students to revise drafts of these assignments. Faculty will be awarded a one-time $250 stipend during their first semester of participating in the program.

Learn more at the writing fellows program website. Contact Rachel Azima, director of the Writing Center and fellows program, at razima2@unl.edu, or Ben Reed, assistant director of the fellows program, at benreed@huskers.unl.edu with any questions.

More details at: http://go.unl.edu/writingfellows