THE STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE ON THE WRITING FELLOW PROGRAM

Writing and Writing Instruction in Different Academic Contexts

THE STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE ON THE WRITING FELLOW PROGRAM

Patricia Mundelius¹, Mona Stierwald², Parvin Latifa Djahani³

¹Schreibzentrum Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ²Schreibzentrum Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ³Schreibzentrum Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Writing Fellow ​ Programs ​ have ​ made a significant contribution to students’ improvement of writing skills (Hughes & Hall 2011; Regaignon & Bromley 2011; Severino & Knight 2007). Writing Fellows are specially trained peer tutors of a Writing Center. For one semester, they support writing intensive courses in various disciplines, acting as an intermediate between the students’ and the teachers’ perspective on academic writing.

With their knowledge of writing processes, genre, and writing didactics, they provide students with a written feedback on two smaller writing assignments (for the scaffolding concept see Gibbons 2002; Hammond & Gibbons 2005). Additionally, each student can address individual questions about his/her writing in a writing consultation session. The presenters are currently working as Writing Fellows at Frankfurt’s Goethe University. Writing Fellow Programs were recently launched in Germany by two Writing Centers (Frankfurt (Main) and Frankfurt (Oder)). We developed a questionnaire (qualitative and quantitative) that offers an insight into students’ perspective on the effects of the program (n=71). Since written peer feedback is a method most students aren’t familiar with, we expect that some students will have difficulties with accepting the role of writing fellows whose feedbacks focus on argumentative structure, style, and clarity instead of disciplinary content (a role that remains with the teacher). At the end of our presentation, we will discuss the possible effect the results of this survey will have on the training of future writing fellows.

References

GIBBONS, P. (2002) ​ Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning. Teaching Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom​ . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

HALL, E. & HUGHES, B. (2011) Preparing Faculty, Professionalizing Fellows: Keys to Success with Undergraduate Writing Fellows in WAC. ​ The WAC Journal​ 22. p. 21­40.

HAMMOND, J. & GIBBONS, P. (2005) Putting scaffolding to work: The contribution of scaffolding in articulating ESL education. Prospect Vol. 20, No. 1, p. 6­30.

REGAIGNON, D. R. & BROMLEY, P. (2011) What Difference Do Writing Fellows Make? ​ The WAC Journal​ 22. p. 41­63.

SEVERINO, C. & KNIGHT, M. (2007) Exporting Writing Center Pedagogy: Writing Fellow Programs as Ambassadors for the Writing Center. In: MACAULEY, W. J. & MAURIELLO, N. (eds.). ​ Marginal Words, Marginal Work: Tutoring the Academy in the Work of Writing Centers​ . Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. p.

19­33.