Writing Center News

During the fall semester, the Writing Center:

• saw more than 785 clients, for a total of more than 1825 appointments
• met with 95 workshop attendees.

We are sad to say goodbye to Anna Habib, interim director of the writing center for the past year and a half. Anna is leaving Mason after this semester to take a position with a charter school in the District doing faculty development in WAC and ESL writing. As interim director, Anna has developed a number of new initiatives, including the ESL Opt-In program, which allows ESL writers to make up to 15 appointments a semester with the same tutor. A national search is being conducted for a new director who will begin his/her duties in Fall 2011.

The Writing Center is staffed by over 25 graduate and undergraduate peer tutors, who provide tutoring four days a week from 9:30 - 7:30, Fridays from 9:30 - 2:30, and, starting at mid-semester, Sundays from 11:30 - 4:30.

In Fall 2010, these students were selected to participate in the experiential course CHSS 390: Peer Tutoring in the Disciplines:

• Taryn Brooks-Faulconer, Biology and Psychology
  
• George Buzzell, Psychology
  
• Kim Ruff, Individualized Studies
  
• Paula Salamoun, Government and International Politics
  

And this former peer tutor was chosen as a writing fellow:

• Conner Morgan, English, in BIS 390 with Dr. Jeannie Brown Leonard
  

Teaching with Writing Across the Curriculum
Director/Editor: Dr. Terry Myers Zawacki
Production Editors: Sarah Baker, Whitney Poole

Building a Personal Brand for Professional Purposes with Social Media

The Social Media project Prof. Melissa Martin assigns in Marketing 315 teaches students how to create a personal “brand” for professional purposes using Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs. The project also prepares them to assume responsibility for a potential employer’s social media presence. (Click on title for full article.)

Social Media Projects to Enhance Second Language Learning

Social media provide authentic situations beyond the classroom walls for second-language learners as they learn to become competent communicators in a language other than their native ones. Prof. Esperanza Roman-Mendoza describes the digital multimedia portfolio project she assigns in Spanish 336 to help students acquire both linguistic and multicultural competence. (Click on title for full article.)

A passive, asynchronous approach to using technology tools for facilitating writing and response can diffuse the vitality of the teacher-student relationship. Prof.Twila Johnson describes the benefits and how-tos of using Jing, a free downloadable audio-video platform, to respond to student writing. (Click on title for full article.)

Minute papers, written on index cards at the end of the class period, offer students the opportunity to reformulate “big ideas” from the readings and class discussion and to ask “burning questions” in need of clarification. Students report that the succinct format forces them to make sense of the day’s work and, when they read Prof. Suzanne Scott’s responses, they can see that she takes their work seriously. (Click on title for full article.)

And also in this issue...

Writing Blog Style

Rediscover the George Mason Review

Library Corner: RSS as Academic Research Tool

WAC News

See past issues of Teaching with Writing Across the Curriculum