Context

Your final project for the Practicum is a reflective and analytic essay about your experience as a writing fellow. Your work in the writing classroom, in your tutoring sessions, and in the Practicum has given you have a wealth of varied, first-hand experience to draw from as you think about both the writing and tutoring processes. By contrast, you’ve only begun to look at some of the theories behind these processes.

Assignment

For this first phase of the final assignment, you’ll delve into three web-based resources, The WAC Clearinghouse, Across the Disciplines and WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship explore their content, and prepare  to represent and discuss what you learn in a 5-7-minute presentation.

Learning Objectives

• Situate your experience as a writing fellow within the scholarship and commentary you explore on Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)
• Develop and use a vocabulary for talking about your experience
• Use your reading to identify a focus for your final essay
• Use your reading to identify further sources to consult
• Connect your individual research to our discussions in Practicum
• Communicate these findings to the Writing Fellows group

Based on these learning objectives, your presentation should

• explain which aspect of being a writing fellow you want to focus on
• outline the more specific questions or issues you may pursue in the final paper
• introduce the group to 2-3 relevant sources you found in your research and explain how they influence your thinking at this point

In addition, your journal entry should provide a works cited entry for each source, and a list of other sources you plan to consult.

Other Tips

Note that the link to Across the Disciplines goes directly to information about writing fellows. You’ll want to consult the rest of the journal as you refine your focus.

Note, too ,that Across the Disciplines is one journal hosted by the more general WAC Clearinghouse site. There’s a LOT to explore there, including other open-access journals and peer-reviewed resources.

You may have a good idea about how you want to focus your research, but if you don’t, use our readings initially to help you describe your interests e.g. what part of the writing or tutoring process might you want to learn more about? what about the place of reading in a writing course, or some of those tutoring challenges, or the question of mandatory or voluntary tutoring?

Due Dates

Presentations will be made on 11/8 and 11/15

You should have a draft of your essay ready for peer review on 11/29. Further details about the final paper will follow in a separate assignment.