Writing Fellows

Mission

The Writing Fellows mission is to help JC students become better thinkers, readers, and writers. Faculty support, individualized tutoring, and responsive reading all help our students understand writing as a recursive process. We believe that a writer can learn a good deal by talking to a sensitive and responsive reader before, during, and after writing and rewriting.

We adhere to the following guidelines:

1. Writing Fellows begin where the student is. Writing Fellows always start with the student’s concerns and needs, setting aside personal agendas or preferences.
2. All students do their own work. Writing Fellows do not edit nor do they rewrite any portion of the tutees work. Writing Fellows suggests strategies for revision and editing, and they use sample papers and worksheets to help students understand individual revising and editing processes. Writing Fellows emphasize critical thinking or meta-thinking during tutoring sessions.
3. Writing Fellows first address “higher order” concerns such as understanding the scope of the assignment, rhetorical mode or genre expectations, purpose and audience concerns, collection or invention techniques, and organizational strategies before they address “lower order” concerns such syntax, punctuation, usage and spelling. Writing Fellows stress that the point of the essay, report, or article drives the entire process.
4. Writing Fellows adhere to the goal of independent learning, using redirection as a strategy. Writing Fellows do not attempt to solve all writing concerns in a single session or even in a semester. Their goal is to help peers become more confident and competent thinkers, readers and writers.

Contact

Questions about the Writing Fellows Program? Please contact Diana Agy at agydianam@jccmi.edu.