Brown University

by Anthony Isenhour, Writing Consultant

Writing at Brown:

Brown requires "that all its graduates achieve competence in writing” and has developed writing programs to aid their effort.¹ Additionally they base the writing requirement on the belief that “learning to write well is a developmental process that occurs over time. For this reason, beginning with the class of 2018, all Brown undergraduates, must work on their writing at least twice.” ²

First-Year Seminars and Writing Courses:

The University employs first-year seminars, but does not mandate a writing focus or series of tasks for them. Instead they state that “students receive regular feedback on their work” without indicating the type of work required, as it should vary across fields of study. ³ They do indicate that these seminars span the disciplines and enroll no more than 19 students. Additionally, the university began offering sophomore seminars in 2014 “in order to create focused opportunities for second-year students -- no longer eligible for First-Year Seminars and not yet able to enroll in more advanced seminars offered by departments for junior and senior concentrators -- to connect with faculty and a small number of students around together ideas, perspectives, and approaches that are not normally seen side by side in a given course or program.” ⁴ The focus of these seminars does not seem to place focus on developing communication and research skills like our FYS program, but instead to give the beginning college student more access to focused study.

Instead, the University requires two Writing Designated Courses (similar to our FSLT requirement). The difference being that these WRIT courses are specifically built to teach writing in a specific discipline and require substantive feedback on at least two writing assignments as part of their course format. ⁵ Courses that fulfill this requirement include any course in the English department and any course that works with writing fellows, as well as a variety of others.

AP Credit Not Permitted:

The university does not allow for AP credit to fulfill this requirement as they believe even good writers can elevate their writing. However, in acknowledgement of different writing styles for different fields, some alternatives are possible for specific concentrations (majors) for the second required class. ² Because their requirement is not “literary studies” and is instead focusing on writing itself, they are able to allow for discipline specific courses on writing.

Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning:

The Sheridan Center is what can be considered the “Learning Commons” of the university and moved to the 5th and 6th floors of the Sciences Library in 2016 when the “educational development functions of the Center were merged with Brown’s writing, academic tutoring, and English language learning services.” ⁶ In regards to Brown’s writing services, they have developed two programs.

One is the Writing Center composed of graduate student-employees, and the other is the Writing Fellows Program composed of undergraduate students. The writing programs are overseen by Stacy Kastner, consider the Associate Director of the writing programs, and she is considered a faculty member of the department of English. While I believe most Writing Center consultations takes place in the Writing Center of the Sheridan Center, the Sciences Library also includes a coffee shop and multiple collaborative zone where consultations with Fellows or graduate associates of the Writing Center could also take place.

The center provides multiple workshops and training sessions for faculty and students regarding writing, studying, and teaching throughout the year. Additionally, there are fall and winter retreats for each of the writing programs that work to further aid them in their jobs, as well as create a sense of community for each program.

Role and Functions of the Writing Center:

“Brown's Writing Center provides individual and group writing support free of charge to any member of the Brown community. Writing Center associates assist students with all stages of the writing process, from finding a topic through drafting, revising, and final editing.” ¹. This center is staffed by graduate students across the disciplines and open Sunday-Thursday 3-9pm. They have an online appointment system, but requires appointments to be made 5 days in advance and they do not take walk-ins. In addition they provide a portion on the form for indicating ESL assistance and the center employs specific staff with extra training to assist even though all associates receive some ESL training.

Furthermore, the center explicit states that associates “can help writers deal with writer's block, audience awareness, argumentation, organization, grammar, research skills, the conventions of academic writing, English as a Second Language, and issues of clarity and style.” ¹ Interestingly, they do not specify the extent to which the center can assist with aspects such as grammar or proofreading. Additionally, the only mention of violating some honor code is in regards to approved aid for students with take-home exams. Further research about their program would include their in-depth policies regarding proofreading and such practices that some schools would consider plagiarism.

The writing center also functions to provide additional assistance and programming for training faculty and students. In regards to aiding the transition of high schools to college, the university offers a writing-based pre-orientation program built to help students with a weaker background in academic writing succeed. This week-long program includes multiple one-on-one consultations with the graduate associates, who the university considers “near-peers” similar to our concepts of our writing consultants as “near-peers.” Furthermore, the writing center page on the graduate student website indicates that the center provides online resources such as style guides and instructional materials, but I could not locate them on the website. ⁷

Writing Center Requirements:

Graduate Associates are expected to hold one-hour consultations with any member of the Brown community. They must be flexible in their teaching methods and familiar with basic writing pedagogical theory. Additionally, while undergraduate writing fellows are required to enroll in a semester-long course for training, graduate associates of the writing center attend about 15 hours of training and shadowing that is paid. They work 3-hour shifts in their center for $17.00 an hour and the center employs over 30 staff members. Their application includes portions where they submit their own writing, as well as experience in the field of writing pedagogy and tutoring. ⁸

Role of Writing Fellows:

“The Writing Fellows Program was established in 1982 to help integrate the study of writing into courses throughout the university.” ⁹ Fellows are assigned to specific courses that satisfy the WRIT course requirement. There are about two dozen courses offered each semester with writing fellows, but for a school with twice our undergraduate population, I am critical of this devotion to peer-tutoring.

Students have to submit drafts of two or more assignments to the fellows in these courses, and the revisions are considered part of their overall grade. Fellows meet individually with students and “comment on the drafts, responding to argumentation, analysis, organization, clarity and style and suggesting strategies for revision.” ⁹ This description does not include grammar so we assume this is a difference in editorial role between the writing center and the writing fellows program that aligns itself more to the dangers of violating their honor codes.

Brown views writing fellows as sympathetic peers, who “work in a spirit of collegiality, helping to extend intellectual discourse beyond the classroom.” ⁹ In this light, we use “near-peer” at Richmond to describe a closer relationship than the “near-peer” relationship with graduate students. Instead, we serve as a hybrid of these two styles, integrating both relationships with students (peer and near-peer), but also taking on both writing center and writing fellow roles.

Writing Fellows Requirements

Undergraduate students interested in becoming writing fellows are required to apply to be writing fellows and the process includes a formal application (inaccessible to a non-Brown student), application workshops, and interviews. They are required to enroll in a pass/fail course (EN1190) their first semester, which is only offered in the fall. Their syllabus can be found here and their course is taught by two faculty members with the objective of gaining practical tutoring knowledge, as well as how to place a focus on inclusion, accessibility, and language acquisition.¹⁰

Writing fellows are paid semesterly stipends of $800 and work with 6-10 students on at least two papers for their WRIT course. Because fellows work with a specific class, they are expected to meet with the faculty member and other fellows working for the same WRIT course. Based on our experience with varying workloads for consultants, I am critical of the stipend method for employment. While $800 seems a significant amount to pay a writing fellow, if considered hourly at the Graduate Associate rate of $17.00 per hour, a writing fellow would be working about 47 hours each semester (with 2 assignments and 10 students equating to about 2.5 hours per paper). An interesting question to raise is should we rectify the difference in pay rates between our consultants, who work with more students, and these writing fellows?

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