For Students:
What does a Writing Fellow do?
A Writing Fellow is someone who works in the Writing Center and has been assigned to your class to work with your professor to provide writing support for you while you are in that class. They might support you and your class in a range of ways, from meeting with you for a conversation about your writing, to sharing feedback on a draft of your essays, to providing workshops or handouts or other types of writing support during your course.
Does my class have a Writing Fellow?
If your class has a Writing Fellow, that course will be listed below, along with the name of your Writing Fellow. The best way to contact your Fellow is by email.
Fall 2019 Writing-Fellow Supported Courses
You can also use WCOnline to see when and where your Fellow might be working during the week by logging on at millsaps.mywconline.com.
How can I get writing feedback if my class does not have a Writing Fellow?
Come visit us in the Writing Center! View our hours and locations at millsaps.mywconline.com.
For Faculty:
What’s a Writing Fellow?
A Writing Fellow is a student writing consultant (tutor) embedded within a specific course. Embedding a Writing Fellow in your course is a great way to provide additional writing support to courses in any discipline (humanities, sciences, and business) that have one or more major writing assignment. Writing Fellows can attend class, engage with course readings, hold office hours, provide feedback on essay drafts, deliver workshops on specific writing topics, create writing resources such as handouts, and more. While Writing Fellows are not quite the same as TAs (in that they should not be asked to assign grades to student writing) their relationship with you may be quite similar to how you would interact with a TA.
Because Writing Fellows are paired with specific courses, each faculty member/Writing Fellow pair has an opportunity to tailor the Writing Fellows program to meet the specific needs of the course and its enrolled students. Writing Fellows are paid out of the Writing Center’s student payroll budget. I’ll handle all their paperwork, time clock approvals, etc., but they report directly to you. Our budget supports an average of three hours per week of work, but email me if more time is needed and we can figure it out.
Who benefits from having a Writing Fellow?
The students do, of course, but so do you! Many faculty have reported appreciating sending the first round of rough drafts by the Writing Fellow for individual feedback before the student turns the revised drafts in for the faculty member’s consideration. Other faculty have appreciated the insights gleaned from Writing Fellows about what kinds of writing resources, workshops, handouts, or other learning tools are of value to students.
The courses that have reported the most success are courses in the first-year curriculum, such as Heritage, Connections, and some Ventures courses; courses that introduce students to writing within a specific discipline, such as Intro to Cell Biology or Intro to Economics; and upper-level courses that are writing intensive or include a significant writing component.
How do I get a Writing Fellow for my course?
Several of you have already initiated these relationships with Writing Center staff members. This is excellent, and encouraged! I am also glad to broker faculty-student pairings for those who are interested in having a Fellow but might not have a particular student in mind. Here’s how it works:
· Keep an eye out for an email from director Liz Egan inviting requests for Writing Fellows for the upcoming semester, or you can email her directly at eganee@millsaps.edu.
· Liz confirms the student’s availability to serve as a Writing Fellow in your course.
· Most successful pairings include the opportunity for Writing Fellows to periodically attend class, so scheduling availability is something to consider; that said, it is not a requirement for the Writing Fellow to be available during your class period if there is a student you really want to work with but who has a schedule conflict with their own courses. This is at the faculty member’s discretion.