Mason's WAC program is participating in a national research project to learn more about the experiences of alumni from our Writing Fellow / Peer Tutor initiatives. Find out more about this project on our Writing Fellow / Peer Tutor Alumni Research Project page.
Who They Are: Writing Fellows are typically undergraduate students who have taken CHSS 390: Peer Tutoring in Writing in the Disciplines, a one-credit experiential course. The peer tutoring course is open to students recommended by faculty for their strong writing and interpersonal skills. In the course, students put these skills into practice through one-on-one tutoring. See the Writing Center's peer tutors page for more information about peer-tutoring. Once they have completed at least a semester of tutoring at the Writing Center, peer tutors may apply for a writing fellow position to work with student writers in a specific course under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Fellows come from a wide variety of disciplines and are selected based on their performance as writers and their ability to help others improve their writing. Interested faculty may consult the handbook for faculty mentors to writing fellows (PDF).
What They Do: Depending upon the course and the teacher's goals, writing fellows may assist in any or all of the following activities: help a professor understand the clarity of his/her writing assignments and evaluation criteria, lead workshops on writing issues; meet with students on drafts; make written comments on drafts; and tutor students individually on their writing. Writing fellows do not give grades on papers or take the place of the teacher in responding to writing; rather they supplement the writing instruction and sometimes clarify for students the teacher's goals and expectations.
Benefits: Writing Fellows play an integral role in advancing and reinforcing the goals of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC). Teachers, students in the course, and the writing fellows all benefit from the opportunity to have focused discussions about writing processes and practices. Having a writing fellow allows faculty to emphasize the importance of good writing and provide support for students to become better writers, including the opportunity to revise with feedback, without a significant investment of faculty time. Faculty gain from talking over assignments and evaluation criteria with the writing fellow who can offer advice from a student's perspective. By engaging in these processes, the fellow also gains valuable insights about teaching, writers, and his/her own writing.
To see an explanation of Writing Fellows Programs at the national level, see the Writing Fellows Programs page at the WAC Clearinghouse.
History: The first so-named Writing Fellows program was instituted at Brown University. The idea caught on, and the creator of the Brown program went on to provide consultation and training to others who wanted to start programs at their institutions. While it is hard to determine the exact number of Writing Fellows programs nationally, the University of Richmond (VA), Brigham Young University, Western Washington University, the University of Wisconsin, and LaSalle University are among the most prominent.
Objectives:
(As articulated by Haring-Smith, Brown University, in "Changing Students' Attitudes: Writing Fellows Programs")