Thomas Beachdel          Anton Borst Jennifer Gieseking Jaicy John Anna Larson Sara McClelland

Thomas Beachdel

My assignment at Hunter College during the 2009-2010 academic year was to work with the Political Science Department, particularly with the POLSC 110 Freshman block class, to help assess, define, clarify, evaluate, and meet learning objectives as they relate to student writing and critical thinking. As a Writing Fellow, my efforts were to implement WAC/WID initiatives through building relationships and strategies to further departmental goals. To meet these goals, I refined a series of out-of-class workshops I developed during the 2008-2009 academic year that emphasized the idea that writing is a process, and that it is related to the process of critical thinking. In collaboration with the Political Science Department faculty, I expanded the workshops to include ones specifically designed to help students develop and write their honors theses.

To supplement the workshops, and to be available as a departmental resource, I held regular office hours to consult with individual students and faculty on virtually all aspects of writing, from ESL issues and grammar, to argument structure and thesis refinement. I also worked to help students "find their voice" when writing personal statements, important email correspondence, letters of intent, and grant proposals. I initiated and maintained a dialogue with faculty to suggest how WAC/WID techniques could be included in syllabus, assignment, and rubric design, as well as applied to effective in-class exercises and scaffolding strategies. Finally, I designed a web site that brings materials and resources together in one place for faculty and student use as a writing resource.

Currently, I am working on a doctoral dissertation at The Graduate Center (CUNY) in the Art History Department, which examines landscape aesthetics and the sublime in eighteenth-century France.

Anton Borst

This year I continued my work in support of the students, faculty, and coordinator of English 220, the required Introduction to Literature course at Hunter College. My focus has increasingly been on conducting workshops that model how to apply what are often referred to as "basic writing skills" to the discipline-specific practices of writing about literature. The topics of these workshops have included thesis development, quotation, essay organization, and paragraph revision and development. Just as rewarding has been my involvement in monthly English 220 faculty meetings and new instructor orientations. In this context I've led discussions and workshops on group work, peer review, scaffolding and sequencing assignments, teaching thesis development, and responding to student writing. Such work with faculty and students has given me the opportunity to develop various pedagogical resources, including handouts, PowerPoint presentations, and a collection of pedagogical articles addressing the topics covered during faculty meetings. As a continuing resource for future instructors, I've gathered all of these materials onto the English 220 instructors' blackboard site, in addition to posting the instructors' own teaching materials, writing assignments, and exam prompts. Throughout the semester I've also met with students for individual tutorial sessions.

During this year I've been able to complete two chapters of my dissertation, American Minds: Phrenology and Self-Recovery in the American Renaissance, which examines the texts of the phrenologists Orson and Lorenzo Fowler alongside those of Walt Whitman and other Romantic writers of the antebellum period. I'm interested in not only how Whitman's deep engagement with phrenology provides a key to understanding many aspects of his poetry, but also how texts on phrenology themselves read as Romantic texts.

Jennifer Gieseking

Jennifer Gieseking was engaged as a Writing Fellow in course-building, faculty consultation, and tutorial work with students for the Philosophy Department. Ms. Gieseking worked closely with Map of Knowledge (HUM110), an important course in Hunter's Block Program. As the course is transitioning to include the college's first-year seminar, the curriculum needed to be rethought. Ms. Gieseking worked closely with the professor teaching the course and two instructors/TAs to draft three scaffolded writing assignments. She made bi-weekly announcements on Blackboard regarding helpful tips for writing or announcing workshops. She held office hours throughout the year, and supplemented these with workshops for students on each of the assignments. Ms. Gieseking has worked with several faculty over the course of her Fellow's work with the Philosophy Department, and her consultation and feedback to the instructor of HUM110 has effected change in the syllabus and delivery of the course.

Jaicy John

Jaicy John worked with History 151 and 152, required courses in the General Education requirement at Hunter College, aiding professors and teaching assistants in guiding students to write formal research papers. As many of those students were in their freshman year and transitioning to college level writing, Ms. John visited discussion sections and presented on the importance of writing clear thesis statements and structuring engaging and effective introductions and conclusions. Through the workshops, she emphasized writing as a process and encouraged students to make individual appointments, which many did, so that she could review their drafts before final submission. Ms. John also developed workshops for the Mellon-Mays Scholars Program, primarily on writing personal statements.

Anna Larson

As a Writing Fellow, Ann Larson participated in the redesign of English 120: Expository Writing, Hunter College's Freshman Composition course, assisting the program Director and Coordinators to plan the new curriculum, coordinate development meetings for the teaching staff, organize portfolio review sessions, and implement a new exit exam for all English 120 students. Ann also served as mentor to Hunter's part-time teaching staff by working individually with instructors to help them design syllabi and assignments. Since all Freshman Composition students must write a documented research paper, Ann met with instructors to assist them with the design of research assignments. She also conducted classroom workshops for students on the research process, including finding and evaluating sources, integrating quotations, and using MLA documentation style. Ann also assisted in the development workshops for faculty on a number of topics including writing assessment.

Working as a Writing Fellow afforded Ann the time to complete her dissertation, which she defended in March 2010. Her research in English (Composition and Rhetoric) focuses on the literacy skills, graduation rates, and post-college employment prospects of basic ("remedial") writers, working-class students, and people of color.

Sara McClelland

I worked with the Hunter Economics department and specifically with students writing a master's thesis for the combined BA/MA degree in Economics. For most of the students, this assignment was their first large-scale empirical paper. I created and facilitated writing workshops in which students learned how to develop a strong research question, write a strong paragraph, and structure an empirical paper. In addition, I generated sample and study materials and worked one-on-one with students, including reading and providing editorial advice for multiple thesis drafts.