“The Writery” was a printed publication of the Campus Writing Program from 1994 – 2005. “The Writery” was a place for discussing the writing process and its role in learning in all disciplines. Published three times each semester, it is distributed to MU faculty, and to students and friends by request.
The Campus Writing Program’s TA/faculty workshops and this article, as well as several other essays, grew from “Sharing the Room,” the authors’ ethnographic project for a 1992 graduate seminar in the theory and practice of writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC).
Occasionally, a Campus Writing Program tutorial closes with friendly conversation about nonacademic issues. Miki Kajiwara, a frequent visitor to the Campus Writing Program, would like to extend such nonacademic conversations beyond the walls of the classroom and tutoring center. We invited her to write an article for The Writery expressing these views.
Nicoleta Raileanu is a visiting scholar from the University of Sibiu, Romania, where she teaches English language and literature. At MU under the auspices of a major U.S. Information Agency grant obtained by political science professor Jeff Chinn, Nicoleta is one of 15 Sibiu and 13 MU exchange faculty. She became interested in MU and the Campus Writing Program after meeting Marty Townsend, CWP Director, last spring during Townsend’s visit to Romania. In the spirit of continuing CWP’s commitment to international students and supporting their writing, we asked Nicoleta to reflect on her MU experiences.
Whether it’s a slinky, plastic top, radiometer or child’s view of radio operation, Haskell Taub, Professor of Physics, uses innovative teaching approaches, including Writing Intensive methods. After several friendly discussions with Marty Patton, CWP Natural and Applied Sciences Liaison, we invited him to share his thoughts on curiosity, radios and the complexity of the scientific world.
“You can’t say what art is. It’s like electricity. You can describe what it does. You can talk about the nature of art, but you can’t point to one quality and say, “this is it.”’
Campus Writing Board member, Aaron Krawitz, a professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is a staunch advocate of using writing-to-learn principles in his classes. In this interview Campus Writing Program’s Chris Semansky asked Dr. Krawitz to reflect on the challenges and rewards of teaching in this innovative way.
Sometimes group projects falter because students lack a plan for working together and for managing their time. John Dwyer has borrowed a strategy from management to help his forestry students successfully complete group projects.
“For most of my 25 years’ teaching, I’ve fought against students’ reluctance to write more than one version of any assignment. While not pretending to have infallible answers, I offer here a half dozen tips we discussed at a Campus Writing Program brownbag titled, “Listen up! Getting Students to Take Rough Drafts Seriously.”
“Studious, social, and rebellious: That’s how the women now describe their personas in the days of “those plaid skirts” at St. Teresa’s. Ironically, we believe these qualities are also the makings of a good Writing Intensive tutor. We’ll let them each explain why…
Commenting on students’ drafts can be a daunting task. We have to decide not only what to write but how much to write and in what order. And we have to do all of that student by student, paper by paper, again and again. Anyone who has ever done it is likely to look charitably at another teacher’s efforts.
Alive and thriving in its new surroundings, Campus Writing Program (CWP) is gearing up to celebrate twenty years of WI curriculum at MU. As CWP adds the finishing touches to the planned festivities for our December 9th open house, we look back to the origins of the Program, its governing Campus Writing Board, and the outstanding faculty and instructors who made it all possible.
