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Working with Writing Fellows What to expect in your writing conference Details of the Conference The Barnard Writing Fellows Program is designed to help students strengthen their writing in all disciplines. It is based on the premise that when you write clearly and cogently about a subject, you make it yours. We believe that writing is a process; it happens in stages, in different drafts; it may be ended (on the day a paper is due), but it is never really finished. Writing is revision--re-seeing--and all writers, no matter how accomplished, can benefit from discussing their work with an intelligent reader and then revising it. Often the most fruitful dialogue about your writing occurs with your peers, and the Writing Fellows you will be working with in this course are just that. They are not tutors or TAs; they are educated readers. It is not their role to comment on the accuracy of the content of your papers, nor to grade your work. They are not enrolled in your course. You will probably know more about its specific material than they, and your papers must therefore be clearly enough written so that the non-expert can understand them. The Writing Fellows' area of expertise is writing, the writing process, and the ways in which you can use it to enhance both the quality of your learning and the excellence of your papers. Writing Fellows are Barnard undergraduates, nominated by faculty and their fellow students, who participate in a semester-long workshop in the teaching of writing and, having finished their training, staff the Barnard Writing Center and work in courses across the disciplines. They have been/are attached to courses in Anthropology, Architecture, Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Biology, Comparative Literature, Economics, English, History, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Slavic, Sociology, Spanish, and Women's Studies. It is their job to read and hold conferences on the first draft of every paper assigned in this course, with every student enrolled. Your instructor will list two due dates for each piece of writing assigned. You will hand in your first draft to your instructor who will
pass it on to your Writing Fellow. The Writing Fellow will read it, write comments and conference with you on it, after which you will have
a week to revise the paper. Obviously, the more you put into your first version, the more you will get out of the program. We urge you to
write the most serious paper you possible can for the first due date. Please note: It is a course requirement that you meet with your Writing Fellow to discuss your papers, but you are entirely free to
make your own choices about how much and what sort of revision you finally want to do. If you do not have a complete draft, feel free to bring in whatever writing you've finished. Writing Fellows are happy to discuss ideas for thesis statements, introductions, conclusions, etc., in lieu of actual writing. Writing fellows serve as naive readers to facilitate conferences; when writers come in for a conference, the Writing Fellow will read the draft, write down comments in the margins and then, depending on the Writing Fellow, may either begin with the Introduction and Conclusion. In the process of the conference, the Writing Fellow may question your claims--do not feel that she is judging them; rather, this is an opportunity to defend your argument and to review the relevant evidence used in constructing that argument. You may find that talking about something as "dry" as a thesis statement will help you recognize any "holes" in your argument and assist you with your revision. If you have a particular focus for the writing conference, feel free to tell the Writing Fellow. Sometimes some students come to the Writing Center to improve their grammar skills while others want to work on organization or use of evidence. The Writing Center is here for you to talk about all issues of writing; no issue is too small and no issue is too big. You may, in the course of your conference, find out that your Writing Fellow has taken the class you are now in. It would not be inappropriate to ask her how she approached the assignment or what resources she used in completing the assignment. However, it would be inappropriate to ask her to assign a grade to your work or evaluate it in any manner. Writing Fellows are meant to be peer tutors, not teaching assistants, so even a casual remark of "this is a good point" is not meant to be construed as "this will definitely get you an A". ________________________________________ back to top For students visiting the Writing Center: -each appointment in the Writing Center can last up to 1 hour -Writing Fellows do not have access to your draft so please bring a copy to the Writing Center for your appointment -bring a copy of your assignment and any relevant text(s) to the conference For students in an attached class: -each appointment with the Writing Fellow can last up to 30 minutes -bring a copy of your assignment to the conference If you have questions or concerns about the program, you may address them to the Writing Fellows themselves, to your instructor, or to
Pamela Cobrin, the Director of the Writing Center (Barnard English Department: 212.854.2724). |
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| © 2007 Barnard College | Writing Fellows Program | 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027 | 212-854-8941 | ||
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