Syllabus

Course Description:

Welcome to the Writing Tutor Training course! This course is designed to expose you to a wide range of approaches to becoming an effective tutor in a writing center environment that utilizes peer tutors. Throughout the semester, you will learn different techniques to tutor writing while becoming more aware of your own writing practices and philosophies. Moreover, you will re-familiarize yourself with the foundational features of  effective writing in multiple modes and genres. Because many of you have never tutored before, the course is based on both theory and praxis, meaning there will be numerous opportunities to put into practice the theoretical concepts that you will be learning throughout the semester.

Course Learning Goals:

1. To become familiar with the historical background of writing centers
2. To become familiar with past and current writing center scholarship
3. To understand the connections between social justice, educational justice, and writing center work
4. To become familiar with the multiple theoretical approaches to tutoring writing
5. To build confidence in addressing concerns in writing in multiple disciplines and genres
6. To develop awareness of the ways culture, community, literacies, and diverse personal experiences impact writers
7. To develop a personal tutoring style and philosophy while acknowledging the necessity of being adaptable as tutoring scenarios are continuously changing
8. To foster critical thinking, oral and written communication skills
9. To foster compassionate approaches to working with student writers, and to create a greater appreciation for the service writing tutors provide to their campus community

Course Requirements:

Required Textbooks:

• Fitzgerald, Lauren and Melissa Ianetta. The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors: Practice and Research. 1st ed. Oxford UP, 2016.
• Williams, Joseph M. and Joseph Bizzup. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. 12th ed. Pearson, 2017.

Digital Materials:

• A laptop, tablet, or other reliable digital device (preferably not your phone) that you can bring to class, charged
• Regular access to a reliable internet connection (This could be a computer lab here at Centenary.)
• Regular access to a computer with Adobe Acrobat Reader (The computers in the labs at Centenary should already have this downloaded. You can download this for free on your laptop, phone, or tablet at http://get.adobe.com/reader/.)
• A Google Drive account (also free; this comes with a Gmail account).
• In addition to our textbook, short readings will be provided by me online via a shared Google Drive folder linked on the blog and/or in class.

Assignments:

Please see the Assignments page of this website for more information.

Turning in Assignments:

All assignments should be turned in electronically, via a Google Drive folder. At the beginning of the semester, please share a Google Drive folder with me for these purposes. (You can share it with my teaching Gmail address: profandersen.centenary@gmail.com) Each assignment should be composed using Google Docs, or should be uploaded to the folder in Google Doc format.

• An additional note on submissions: I expect you to be able to resolve any technological difficulties you may be having well before your assignment is due. Not being able to upload a file, broken links, laptop malfunctions, or an “email glitch” are not valid excuses for handing in late work. (This is why I base my course in Google docs – to ensure that you can access your work anywhere, from any computer, at any time.) If you need assistance you can always call or email the Centenary Helpdesk. You can contact me as well, although the sooner you reach out to me the better in terms of how much I’ll be able to help you. To clarify: any missing assignments, broken links, or inaccessible files/videos/images are your responsibility to take care of before the assignment deadline.

Course Policies:  

• For course policies regarding grades, late work, plagiarism, etc., please refer to the Grading Contract for this course, and to the Centenary University Syllabi Statements linked in our course’s Moodle site.

Academic Assistance:

• Accommodations: Students with documented disabilities are entitled under the law to reasonable accommodations. I am committed to an access-friendly classroom, and am willing to do whatever I can to help you succeed in this course. If you have a disability and need accommodations, please notify me as early as possible during the semester and contact the Office of Disability Services: dso@centenaryuniversity.edu or call 908-852-1400, ext. 2251.
• Academic Success and Advising Center: The Academic Success and Advising Center offers assistance in a variety of areas, including study skills and content-based tutoring. Contact academicsuccess@centenaryuniversity.edu or call 908-852-1400, ext. 2353.
• Writing Collaboratory: Students seeking help with writing assignments, as well as those wishing to develop their writing skills in general, are invited to visit The Writing Collaboratory, a tutoring center specializing in writing. The tutors, who offer one-on-one assistance, are some of your fellow undergraduates specifically trained in proven methods for writing tutoring. The Collaboratory hours are 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday. To get more information or to set up an appointment, send an email to collaboratory@centenaryuniversity.edu or call 908-852-1400, ext. 2400.

Inclusivity Statement:

English is an evolving language that continuously changes to meet cultural, technical, and sociopolitical needs. In recent years, discussions of identity and inclusion have been shaping the way we use pronouns. With that in mind, please respect the pronoun choices of your classmates as we participate in class discussions and peer review. When appropriate, gender-neutral pronouns should be used. They/them/their/theirs/themself are commonly accepted forms of gender-neutral pronouns, but by no means are those the only, or even the most common, options. I encourage you to identify your pronouns when you feel comfortable doing so, and to refer to others in ways that align with their identities. Additionally, our awareness of harmful terminology in everyday speech is constantly shifting as we learn and grow as individuals. As a result, this class will be a place for us to think critically about the ways our words impact those around us. Language that degrades the humanity of others in- and outside of our classroom (i.e., words or phrases that are classist, ableist, racist, gender-exclusionary, anti-LGBTQIA+, etc.) will be analyzed critically with an eye towards respectful communication and thinking, as our classroom community develops greater awareness of identity in the texts we confront. This course values inclusion, kindness, diversity, and thoughtful conversations that interrogate cultural concepts, and it is important for our language use to reflect that.