College Writing Program Faculty Handbook

Table of Contents

I. The College Writing Program (CWP)

CWP was founded in 1987 to help integrate the practice of writing into courses throughout the college. This handbook is designed to answer questions you may have about the College Writing Program (CWP) at Lafayette College.

Members of CWP provide various services to the Lafayette community. Writing Associates (WAs) are undergraduate students selected and trained by CWP to support writing in courses in a wide variety of disciplines.  A drop-in service is also available for students who would like to meet with a WA.

CWP provides ongoing support for faculty teaching with writing, which includes workshops on writing pedagogy, individual consultations, and invited speakers.

II. Program Location (CWP)

CWP is housed in the Provost’s Office, and is currently directed by members of the English Department (Bianca Falbo, Associate Professor and Tim Laquintano, Associate Professor), and a full-time coordinator (Emma Hetrick).  While the administrators of the program teach in the English Department, the program itself is “owned” not by a single department but by the College. Thus, CWP can be found wherever discussions of writing occur—not only in the Watt College Writing Room (Pardee 319, where WAs do much of their work), but also in classrooms, in dormitories, or on the quad.

III. Guidelines for Participation

Faculty requesting WAs for their courses agree to the following guidelines:

• WAs function as trained, intelligent, critical readers of work-in-progress, not as graders, proofreaders, or editors.
• Students meet with a Writing Associate (WA) four times during the semester. Planning to meet five to seven days before a project’s due date usually leaves sufficient time for conferences.
• Faculty members will meet with the WA early in the semester to discuss the syllabus, plans, and due dates for assignments, and general expectations for writing. Faculty should also meet and/or communicate via email regularly with the WA during the semester to discuss expectations for individual assignments.

Note: Most faculty working with WAs are also teaching W courses. Requirements for W courses were developed by the Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee (CEP) and designed to provide students with regular opportunities for writing, feedback, and revision. A list of the CEP requirements for W courses can be found here.

Of course, in the end, CWP works differently for everyone. Although the above practices are common to affiliated courses, we recognize that they do not serve every course. If you find this is the case for your course, please contact us for an individual consultation and we will work with you to develop a plan for writing in your course.

IV. Benefits of Participation in CWP

Benefits for faculty members

• CWP enables faculty to craft effective writing assignments and emphasize high-quality writing.
• Each paper submitted after a WA conference will have gone through at least one major revision.
• By helping students submit more readable papers, CWP enables greater focus on students’ comprehension of the subject matter.

Benefits for students

• WAs encourage students to think carefully about their writing in all situations.
• CWP instills revision, the best of all possible writing habits.
• WAs provide an opportunity for peer discussion, helping students understand the value of positive collaboration.
• By providing a safe space for questions, WAs allow students to take risks in trying to extend their writing abilities, without fear of penalties.
• CWP builds a sense of academic community and cooperation that will benefit students in other working situations.
• In W courses, students will have the opportunity to practice what they learned in the First Year Seminar and English 110.

Benefits for WAs

• WAs gain valuable experience in the practice of teaching and editing writing, and they learn more about their own prose.
• They acquire the pleasure and confidence that comes from helping others.
• WAs develop a professional relationship with a faculty member.

V. Working with Writing Associates

A. Writing Associates
B. Requesting WAs for Specific Courses
C. Mentor WAs
D. Assignments in CWP Supported Courses
E. Written Guidelines for Assignments
F. WA Conferences

A. Writing Associates

WAs are students from different disciplines, selected for their proven performance in writing and ability to help others improve their writing. As intelligent readers who ask tough questions, WAs encourage students to think critically about their writing choices. Each semester, CWP employs between 30 and 60 WAs who read drafts of papers for hundreds of students.

Students may become WAs through a once-a-year application process. Competition for WA positions is stiff. Faculty members may nominate students to become WAs, or students can apply on their own. Most WAs are hired before their second or third year (i.e., at the end of their first or second year). Candidates submit an application, complete with a writing sample and 3 faculty recommendations, and are interviewed by experienced WAs and CWP administrators.

Once hired, WAs participate in thorough and ongoing training. Each August, they attend a full day workshop after completing required summer prework in reading and writing. The workshop introduces important issues that are further reviewed during weekly required staff meetings run by the CWP Coordinator, Emma Hetrick. WAs are expected to discuss current research in composition and explore the ways in which research and theory can be applied to their work. Each WA meets with a CWP administrator at least once each semester to discuss their participation.

Typically, WAs meet with 15 to 20 individual students from a single course section four times a semester, holding 30-minute conferences to discuss drafts of written work. An individual WA will work with the same group of students for a full semester. WA assignments are based on experience, major area, and the level of students in the associated course. CWP makes every attempt to place upper class WAs in upper division courses. Since each WA works with only 15-20 students, courses with large enrollments will have two or more WAs.

In a typical semester, a WA meets four times with each student. Although fewer assignments may be required during the semester, WA meetings can be used to discuss revisions or general writing issues. Students should sign up for a conference at least a week before a paper is due. The logistics of signing up for WA conferences vary by course; we recommend using the Scheduler function on the course’s Moodle site. Individual conferences usually last thirty minutes. WAs are equipped to work with students at any step of the writing process–whether they are just starting to brainstorm an idea or already have a completed draft.

Students usually meet with a WA in the Watt Writing Room (Pardee 319), but your WA may prefer other public locations on campus, such as the library. Drop-in hours are available to students in any class, and take place Sunday-Thursday from 3-5pm in Pardee 319 and 7-9pm in Skillman Library 105.

B. Requesting WAs for Specific Classes

CWP administrators consider both the faculty and WA needs when making assignments. Faculty members may request a WA with a specific background. These requests are filled as frequently as possible, with upper-level and highly technical courses receiving first priority.

Faculty members may consider that WAs with limited knowledge of a field may make better first readers of student prose, particularly in introductory courses such as FYS. In these cases, WAs can respond as intelligent lay readers who can identify gaps that experts might ignore, helping students develop stronger skills in argumentation and critical thinking.

C. mentor was

Mentors WAs are experienced associates whose work has been outstanding. In addition to serving as WAs, they provide other additional training and support for other WAs. Mentor WAs are available to speak with faculty members about general WA issues, or more particular concerns.

D. Writing Assignments in CWP Supported Courses

CWP complements the primary function of your course, but should not shift its focus. Since writing about a subject helps one understand it better, the program should help your students learn the information you seek to impart.

The Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee (CEP) requires all writing courses to assign 20 pages single spaced (10,000 words) of writing total OR 10 pages singled spaced (5,000 words) of writing that have been revised into final form. Please note that in FYS course, students must complete 5,000 words in revised form. When working with a WA, we recommend that you divide those pages into several shorter assignments to promote improvement in writing and to maximize the effectiveness of the WA support.

Suggestions:

• a 20-page term paper, assigned and reviewed in parts over the course of the semester (could include paper proposal, annotated bibliography, rough draft, completed draft, etc);
• Two separate assignments of approximately 10 pages, each reviewed twice by a WA;
• A series of one-page papers which are periodically combined into one longer paper and then reviewed and evaluated;
• A “running assignment” assigned at the beginning of term, then revised and supplemented at various points in the semester.

E. Written Guidelines for Students and WAs

Although affiliation with CWP should not significantly alter your writing assignments, you may need to modify your written directions to enable the WA to work more effectively.

Generally, WAs are able to provide better feedback when a written assignment is specific, and defines terms like “analysis” and “argument” in the context of your individual or disciplinary expectations. This is particularly important in upper-level writing courses in which students are expected to produce writing that conforms to disciplinary conventions and adopts advanced vocabulary in the field.

If there are pedagogical reasons for using a more open-ended topic with your students, the WA would benefit from a brief explanation of your view of the assignment, your expectations of the final product, and your criteria for evaluation and grading. You can communicate this information by meeting with them or via email.

F. WA Conferences

Participation in WA conferences

We ask that all students in an affiliated course be required to participate in WA conferences. All students can benefit. While the benefits offered to students with poor writing skills may be more obvious, talented students rarely receive extensive comments on their papers. Good student writers often rely on intuition or an innate sense of what writing should be like. Our aim is to help these students gain control and awareness of the writing process and how it can be adapted for various situations. Plus, everyone benefits from having someone else read over their writing to provide feedback.

If a student and WA are unable to schedule a meeting time together (this typically occurs is a student is ill or away from campus during the conference period), faculty may wish to have the student attend drop-in hours to meet with whichever WA is on duty. Students still have the opportunity to share assignment descriptions, drafts, or other materials in advance using the online scheduling platform WCOnline.

Suggested Timing for WA Conferences

Each assignment discussed in conference must be scheduled carefully. To see 20 students, WAs need a week because their own class schedules are tightly packed, and they often meet with students on weekends or during the evening hours.

VI. Faculty Development

CWP offers workshops with experts in writing pedagogy, on general topics like assignment design, and for faculty teaching FYS courses for the first time.

Our faculty development program is shaped/governed by the following principles:

• The primary function of CWP is to provide support and resources. CWP does not monitor classroom practice.
• CWP activities provide opportunities for collaboration and community-building across the college.
• CWP operates within a network of campus programs, including FYS.
• CWP is dedicated to helping all faculty members to identify and articulate their own pedagogical and writing philosophies.
• CWP seeks to broaden the general understanding of what writing means outside of specific disciplines and to help individuals refine their thinking about the functions of writing both within and across individual fields.

VII. Frequently Asked Questions