Schedule Spring 2024
Class Draft Exchange Folder is here.
Week of January 15
Day One: What is Academic Writing? What isn't? Some Goals for the class. Notes here.
Day Two: Do not write commentary but instead, Read "What if Drugs Were Legal?" (make notes about the writer's priorities for revision to bring to class, but there is no need for formal commentary yet). With your writing partners, collaborate on a Google Document in our draft exchange to answer this prompt:
"You get 'Nancy's' draft in the Writing Center. You don't have time to write commentary, but clearly she needs a sense of priorities. What are 3 things (no more than three) for her to address when she revises this? And what is a positive aspect of her draft that your group could agree merits cautiously directed praise?"
NOTE WELL: You'll learn from me that the words and phrases such as "excellent," "good job," "great," "perfect," "strong thesis," "clear understanding of the material," and similar are forbidden, because only professors can make such judgments. Instead, as a reader, react personally. What did you like, what did she teach you, and WHY?
You can find LeMoult's original op-ed here. My notes/slideshow are here.
Week of January 22
Day One: Glaser, Ch. 3. "Voices You Want to Listen To." Just read it; no need to do any of his exercises. My notes/slideshow are here.
Day Two: Bring in a short piece of your writing that you are willing to share; it should reflect your own sense of your stylistic habits as a writer. We will do some work with them together.
Week of January 29
Day One: Workshop with your own writing continues. Same handout from last class. Here are your questions from last week about hopes and goals for the class. And here are two questions for you today.
Day Two: "Voices That Put You Off." Reading from Glaser, J. Ch. 4, Understanding Style. Don't do the exercises (as with the earlier chapter) but do glance at them, because in class we will apply some principles to your partners' writing.
First short graded response due by class time. Upload it to the draft exchange. Topic:
In no fewer than 500 and no more than 1000 words, share how you have you encountered at UR (perhaps earlier) voices that put you off, as Glaser describes. Have you felt forced into those voices? If possible, reflect on how academic writing has worked against your own development as the sort of writer you'd like to be. No professorial names, please, but you are invited to make this personal and "I" is most welcome.
Audience: me and your classmates (we'll share in class and do some checks for focus and evidence). Here are our guidelines for commentary.
Week of February 5
Day One: Read this excerpt from Hjortshoj, K. The Transition to College Writing. Group discussion to return to our staring point: Are you an Eduardo or Marie? What is academic writing? Has your definition changed since 383 began? If so, how? What was the most important lesson you learned between high school & college? We'll work with this FYS paper by "John Doe" briefly (and return to it in detail soon).
Day Two: North, S. "The Idea of a Writing Center" (via JSTOR--if you are off campus, you must connect via VPN to see this piece) and Essid, J. "Extending An Alternative: Writing Centers & Curricular Change" (download from WLN archives here). We will discuss, as a group, perceptions of our Center after we look at a few changes since North's day.
"Thinky-Thought" question: how does the perception of the Center at UR fit (or not) that of North's ideal Center? Or mine? What can we do about that?
Week of February 12
Day One: Bartholomae, D. "The Study of Error" (at our e-reserve), my The Art of Good Commentary, and John Doe's essay for a workshop, using several steps. You will need to have read Bartholomae carefully to do well on this, as it will be graded.
Day Two: Workshop for "John Doe" continues. Final work on John's Commentary due Sunday Midnight. I'll get you feedback before class Tuesday.
Week of February 19 Conferencing Techniques
Sign up for Apprenticeships at the Center (starting Monday 2/26)
Day One: Sherwood, S. "Apprenticed to Failure" (at our e-reserve) & Santa, T. “Listening in/to the Writing Center: Backchannel and Gaze” (look for pages 2-9). Workshop on what to do when things go well (or don't) with an eye toward a short midterm essay.
Day Two: Parsons, K. “Just Say 'No': Setting Emotional Boundaries in the Writing Center is a Practice in Self-Care” (look for pages 26-29). and Blackmon, E. "I Just Need a Green Sheet: Generating Motivation for Required Visits" (scroll down to page 11 in the WLN Archive issue). Continue notes about techniques and fears for the midterm conferencing project & essay.
Week of February 26 Conferencing Techniques : Begin observing at Center on 2/26
Day One: Shaparenko, B. "Focus on Focus: How to Facilitate Discussion in a Peer Group" (at our e-reserve). Part I of Midterm Project. Have your essay for your partner uploaded to the Draft Exchange by class.
Day Two: Workshop with Grammarly, using your partner's Midterm essay. Be sure you have a Grammarly account, unless you already have the client installed on your tablet or laptop. Be ready to eat some doughnuts from Country Style! Tasks today here. Screenshot of our feelings about Grammarly are here.
Week of March 4 AI and The Writing Center
Day One: Workshop with AI in class. Access to ChatGPT 4 here. I will supply an access code: S9HZXO at the start of class. Tasks today here. If this fails us, we'll continue with the GPT 3.5 version here.
Day Two: Begin drafting the reflective essay in class, using some of Shaparenko's "Focus on Focus" techniques as well as ideas here from Thompson, J. “Beyond Fixing Today’s Paper: Promoting Metacognition and Writing Development in the Tutorial through Self-Questioning (look for pages 1-6). Tasks here.
Week of March 11
Spring Break
Week of March 18
Draft of Part III of the Midterm Project: due Tuesday midnight.
Day One: Final workshop on midterm essay. Tasks here. By now, your partner should have a developed draft for you to look over. Aim for that during class period. You won't be able to revise past Midnight (I'll roll any late revisions back to the version at 11:59 pm).
Day Two: Considering cultural differences in writing. Harris, M, & Silva, T. "Tutoring ESL students: Issues and Options" (at our e-reserve) & Enders, D. "The Idea Check: Changing ESL Students' Use of the Writing Center." https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/wln/v37/37.9-10.pdf (look for pages 6-9). Begin considering how to comment on Rita Chen's paper.
Notes for class here.
Week of March 25
Day One: Workshop writing commentary for Rita Chen.
Mosher, D., Granroth, D., Hicks, T. "Creating a Common Ground with ESL Writers" https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/wln/v24/24.7.pdf (starts on page 1) & Moujtahid, B. "Influence of Cultural and Linguistic Backgrounds on the writing of Arabic and Japanese Students of English." Writing Lab Newsletter 21.3 (Nov. 1996): https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/wln/v21/21-3.pdf (look for pages 1-5).
Notes for class here.
Day Two: Workshop writing commentary for Rita Chen. Just for fun, or if you plan to travel abroad, you might wish to read an entry or two from this Australian cultural atlas. It's quite extensive but a non-academic site.
Sullivan, P, Zhang, Y, and Zheng, F. "College Writing in China and America: A Modest and Humble Conversation, with Writing Samples." https://www.jstor.org/stable/43490754 (dial in via VPN if you are off campus to see this piece). Commentary for Rita due by Midnight Thursday.
Notes for class here.
Week of April 1
Day One: Devet, B. "When Classmates Know You're a Writing Center Consultant" (find here). and reread Parsons, K. “Just Say 'No': Setting Emotional Boundaries in the Writing Center is a Practice in Self-Care” (look for pages 26-29). In-class workshop on setting boundaries.
Day Two: Moore, A. “’But I’m Already Done:’ Early Closure and the Student Writer.” https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/wln/v38/38.7-8.pdf (look for pages 14-15) & Janney, A. “Flexing Nonverbal Muscles: The Role of Body Language in the Writing Center.” https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/wln/v36/36.1-2.pdf (look for pages 14-15).
Roleplay in class with one group member portraying a writer with a certain "attitude" or prior experience with the Center or a Consultant. No need to write commentary for your partner but each groups should complete one of our online writing consultant summaries with me as the Professor.
Week of April 8
Day One: Murphy, S. “Dyslexia in the Writing Center: Multimodal Strategies.” The Peer Review, WordPress, 10 Sept. 2020, https://thepeerreview-iwca.org/issues/issue-4-0/dyslexia-in-the-writing-center-multimodal-strategies/ & Sexton, A. “Assisting All Students in the Writing Center.” Purdue University Global Resource Center, Purdue Global Academic Success - Writing Resource Center and Blog, 16 Dec. 2014, https://purdueglobalwriting.center/2014/12/17/assisting-all-students-in-the-writing-center/
In class workshop on initial strategies for Inclusive Design.
Day Two: Discussion of final project. Continued work with Neurodiversity. Bellitter, A. "How to Tackle an Essay (An ADHD-Friendly Guide): 6 Steps and Tips." We'll work with an essay that a writer brings in, self-disclosing to you that she has an accommodation for ADHD.
Week of April 15
Day One: Rafoth, B. et. al. “Sex in the center: Gender differences in tutorial interactions” Writing Lab Newsletter, vol. 24, no.3, Nov. 1999, pp. 1-5, and Johnson, M. “Different Words, Different Worlds.” Writing Lab Newsletter, vol. 24, no.5, Jan. 2000, pp.14-16.
We will draft a document together about making the Writing Center a more inclusive space.
Day Two:
Topic idea and possible title for your essay due to me by e-mail: What area do you wish to explore for the final? Why do you think it might interest a broader audience? (-5 on the final project grade if I don't get that by class time).
Lee, K. "Black in the Writing Center" (at our e-reserve) and Davila, B. “Rewriting Race in the Writing Center.”https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/wln/v31/31.1.pdf (article begins on first page). See this short video about how tutoring works at a majority-black institution, Baltimore City College.
We will continue our document about making the Writing Center a more inclusive space.
Week of April 22
Day One: In class we'll watch "Across the Drafts," a video about Feedback at Harvard. We'll work on some notes to sum up how this video applies/does not to what we've learned this semester. We will then apply the same lessons to setting priorities for a paper on a sensitive topic.
Day Two: Final project workshop. Worksheet for partners can be found here. Partial draft due in draft exchange (-10 points on final project if I don't see a draft of at least 1000 words).
I will be free (e-mail me first) for appointments tomorrow, 11am-3pm. After tomorrow, e-mail me specific questions. I won't review entire drafts after tomorrow.
Last Day of Spring Classes is Friday, April 26 (observations at Center end).
Final Reflective Essay will be due Midnight, Monday April 29. E-mail me a Word Doc or send me a Google-Doc link. No PDFs or Pages documents, please.