With the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, the new writing director implemented a writing program tailored to New College’s needs, modeled off a venn diagram.
September 10, 2014 / Volume XXXVI / Issue I
By Caitlyn Ralph for the Catalyst
The plans are already in motion to drastically expand New College’s writing program. In conjunction with the Assistant Director of Writing Alexandra Maass, the new Director of Writing Jennifer Wells is building the program from the ground up.
Wells informed that up until this year, there was no writing program. Due to the emphasis placed on theses and the requirement for strong writing in every discipline, New College, especially, needs a solid writing program. The blueprint of the new program is compared to a venn diagram, containing four parts that all work together to form a cohesive unit.
The first circle of the diagram is comprised of faculty. The goal is to have faculty be more clear about the writing in their fields, so students understand why they need to write in a certain style for assignments that are outside of their area of concentration. As a result, students will be more prepared for “unfamiliar writing situations,” as Wells put it. Also, Wells wants to provide the guidance and assistance for faculty through this transition to Writing Enhanced Courses (WEC).
The second component is the Writing Resource Center (WRC). The WRC employs a peer-learning model, which has Student Writing Assistants (SWAs) aiding students with their writing. The aim is to advertise the WRC more on campus, and, as Maass endorsed, generate reassurance with students to be more communicative and unreserved with their writing. Maass understands that writing can be an immensely personal endeavor, leaving students reluctant to share that part of themselves with their peers.
“Students who come into a writing center are in a very vulnerable position,” Maass said. To appease that worry, the WRC was recently remodeled. The two stage process began last year. The WRC was relocated to its current location in the Academic Resource Center (ARC), which is much larger than its previous location. After that move, the Provost Office budgeted for the remodel. The decisions were predominantly based on the needs of students, SWAs in particular, who were asked to give their feedback on what they think would improve the WRC. The main concern was with the physical space in the room, specifically with providing more sense of privacy.
“Allie [Maass] did a really good job at fixing the physical center,” Thesis Student and Former SWA Michael Flowers said. “We redecorated it to make it more inviting and less institutional,” Wells commented.
“Honestly, we’re already seeing some really positive changes,” Maass concluded…
Flowers continued by pointing out two common misconceptions surrounding the WRC. First, the WRC has SWAs in every discipline, so they encourage students to come for help with writing in any area of study, not just English. Second, as SWA Lucia Guatney said, “it’s not just grammar, we talk about ideas.” The SWAs like to see students seek help with the early stages of writing, like brainstorming. This allows the SWA to work with the student in cementing a strong base for their assignment.
“[Looking at] where this place was, and where it is now, it has vastly improved,” Guatney continued.
New writing courses encompass the third circle. The courses offered this Spring are Writing Studies: Writing About Writing, which is an introductory course geared toward first and second year students, and Writing Studies: Entering Academic Conversations through Genre Studies, which is a module two course geared toward third and fourth year students.
“Prior to last year, it was just assumed that writing would be taught in the courses where it was assigned,” Wells said. Since that is such a large assumption, these new writing courses have been designed to gather students in a classroom setting to discuss writing, something that Maass is excited to see happening.
After speaking to students who took one of the new writing courses last year, Maass reflected that “they clearly have taken that awareness into their other classes” and that “they seem to be more comfortable and accepting of writing.”
To complete the diagram, the last circle incorporates the New College Pilot Study of Writing, an optional assignment available to first year students over the summer.
“In the long run, I actually want to do a study of one cohort of students and follow them through the four years that they’re here and look at how their writing changes, how their experience with writing changes,” Wells said.
By connecting the circles, and reflecting on the system as a whole, it is understandable that Maass stressed the objective is to “serve as a point of support for the entire campus, for faculty, for students, for staff.” She continued, “you should always challenge yourself to change, and that’s what we’re doing here, that’s what the college is doing right now.”
“Honestly, we’re already seeing some really positive changes,” Maass concluded, “Hopefully, we’ll continue to see those.”
*The SWAs encourage students interested in visiting the WRC to go to ncf.mywconline.com for appointment sign-up and for brief biographies of each SWA to find one that matches any individual situation.
Caitlyn Ralph 
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