KU WRITING CENTER A N N U A L R E P O R T

2014 2015 KU WRITING CENTER A N N U A L R E P O R T

WELCOME TO THE WRITING CENTER!

The KU Writing Center is a writing support resource for KU students, faculty, and staff. Since June 2007, we have worked one-on-one with 12,635 individuals in 46,574 sessions, and many thousand more during class visits, workshops, writing groups, and events.

2014 2015

KU WRITING CENTER A N N U A L R E P O R T

2014 2015

S U P P O R T F O R U N D E R G R A D U AT E S T U D E N T S

Retention and graduation are important outcomes for both undergradu-ate and graduate students. Claire McMurray, Graduate Writing Specialist, worked with faculty and graduate students to reach those goals. The ever popular Graduate Research/Write-Ins on the Lawrence and Edwards Cam-puses achieved a combined attendance of 220. Graduate Studies funded five Graduate Writing Groups for Dissertation Fellowship recipients in June and July, 2014, and building on that success, Claire and Consultants Aman-da Hemmingsen and Aron Muci led four Groups in Fall 2014. Additionally, 17 students continued or joined groups the next semester. Workshops and events, many in collaboration with KU Graduate Studies, focused on topics including abstract writing, grant writing, and American academic writing for international graduate students. As our programming for graduate students develops, we hope to incorporate some of the same concepts in our work with undergraduates. Right: Claire McMurray consults with a graduate student during a Research/Write-In at Watson Library.

KUWC hosted two Faculty-Staff Days of Writing, one in January and one in May, in collaboration with the Provost’s Office. 2014-2015 also saw the development of two kinds of Writing Groups for faculty: “feedback” groups led by the KUWC and “accountability” groups, led by Marta Caminero-Santangelo (ENGL) and Heba Mostafa (HA). Our strategy, “Educate the Educators,” aims to support faculty members’ development as writers and to build on these relation-ships to reach their students via in-class workshops and Writing Fel-lows. Left: Writing group members Marsha McCartney (PSYC), Va-lerie Mendoza (AMS), Kelsie Bitting (GEOL), and Angela Gist (COMS) celebrate a productive session.

A unit of KU Undergraduate Studies, the Writing Center shares its goals of ena-bling students to build foundational intellectual skills and access academic services that support and challenge them. In particular, we aimed to contribute to reten-tion and graduation. For the second year, we collaborated with First-Year Experi-ence by presenting UNIV 101 workshops and with the Office of Multicultural Affairs

by embedding Writing Fellows in HawkLink sections. Thanks to some number crunching by the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, we learned that 50% of first-time freshmen visited the Writing Center between 2006-2013. During the same period, the GPAs of ENGL 101 students who used KUWC services averaged 2.9, compared to 2.5 among non-users. Left: Undergraduate Consultant Kyle Charles and Associate Director Katie Elliott participate in a “MobileWC” event at Allen Fieldhouse.

S U P P O R T F O R G R A D U AT E S T U D E N T S

S U P P O R T F O R FA C U LT Y A N D S TA F F

KU WRITING CENTER A N N U A L R E P O R T

2014 2015

Housed in the Learning Studio, our Anschutz consulting location served 1,073 individual students in Fall 2014 and 852 during Spring 2015. Total face-to-face sessions for the year reached 3,556. First-year student users ranged from 58% in the fall to 35% in the spring, the majority working on pa-pers and projects for ENGL 101 and 102. International students comprised 56% of total users and scheduled 49% of all sessions in this location. Left: Graduate Consultants Kristin Lockridge, Jacob Herrmann, and Danny Caine talk with KU student writers.

One way to assess the Writing Center’s impact is to compare the number of stu-dents served to the fall enrollment at the KU Lawrence and Edwards campuses. Since 2011, we have served approximate-ly 9% of enrolled students each year. In 2014-2015, we reached nearly 30% through events such that included in- class writing workshops, class informa-tional visits, the Writing Fellows pro-gram, Graduate Writing Groups and Re-search/Write-Ins, and other events.

This academic year, we invested time and resources into educating the KU com-

munity about our many services, led by our newly formed marketing team: Associ-

ate Director Katie Elliott, Graduate Consultant Chelsea Murdock, Graduate Intern

Amanda Hemmingsen, Lead Graduate Consultant Aron Muci, and Lead Under-

graduate Consultant Mikey Shaw. The team updated our social media presence on

Facebook and Twitter,

created a KUWC YouTube

channel, and changed the

look of our webpage, writ-

ing.ku.edu. They also cre-

ated events such as Late

Night at the Roost (right)

and fun giveaways with

our logo, including Fris-

bees and coffee mugs.

One Facebook and Twitter

campaign was “Writers of

KU,” a series featuring KU

students, faculty, and

staff. “Writer of KU” Kien Nguyen (above), a graduate student in Civil Engineer-

ing from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, talked about his experience as a KU Writing

Center client. “Because I’m not a native English speaker,” Kien says of his writing

process, “I just start with whatever I think in my mind, whatever works in English.

Then I try to make that correct, then I try to polish the sentence. Many times,

when I meet with a native speaker to help me correct a report, I learn that what I

think is not natural in English and how to write more naturally in English. So I want

to learn as much as I can about that.”

N E W A P P R O A C H E S A N D O U T R E A C H NEW APPROACHES TO OUTREACH

KU WRITING CENTER A N N U A L R E P O R T

2014 2015

Associate Director Katie Elliott and Graduate Intern Amanda Hemmingsen developed a new curriculum and small-group format for consultant development. Meet-ing bi-weekly, groups engaged with readings and dis-cussed practical applications to consulting. The focus in fall sessions was on agenda-setting during consultations and in spring sessions on strategies for tutoring multilin-gual writers. Right: Graduate Consultant Chelsea Murdock leads a consultant development session at Watson Library in Fall 2014.

Consultant Voices:

“Who used a meeting as a chance to express concerns about consultations with inattentive writers, and later went on to imple-ment the solutions we discussed in later consultations? We did!” “Having worked as a consultant for a few years, I realized that I have become set in many of my methods...I don’t want a limited set of tools to help writers. I want options. In order to do that, I have resolved to experiment with a new method each week.”

As a founding member of the Greater Kansas City Writing Centers Project, the KU Writing Center again planned and participated in the August Tutor Retreat at Johnson County Community Col-lege. Associate Director Katie Elliot led a workshop, “Developing Research Questions and Brain-storming Topics: Helping Writers Ask Academic Questions About Their Real-Life Interests.” Admin-istrative Intern Amanda Hemmingsen presented “Emotion and Writing: How to Use Affect to Tu-tor More Effectively,” collaborating with graduate consultants Kate Nygren and undergraduate consultant Ben Bolton. Graduate consultants Kristin Lockridge and Scharla Paryzek presented “So I See You Worked at the Writing Center: Identifying the Skills That Writing Consultants Bring to Non-Academic Professions.” Graduate Writing Specialist Claire McMurray and 13 more KUWC con-sultants completed the KU delegation to the Tutor Retreat. Graduate consultant Charlesia McKinney attended the International Writing Centers Association Conference in Orlando, FL and presented the workshop “Tutoring Writers is Like Playing Basket-ball—How?!?” with colleagues from Kansas State University and Salisbury University. Director Terese Thonus presented “The First of Second Language Writing: An Argument for Disci-plinarity” at the Symposium for Second Language Writing and published an article in the Journal of College Reading and Learning, “Tutoring Multilingual Students: Shattering the Myths.”

Above: Kate Nygren and Ben Bolton present at the Greater Kansas City Writing Centers Project Tutor Retreat.

P R E S E N T AT I O N S A N D P U B L I C AT I O N S

C O N S U LT A N T D E V E L O P M E N T

KU WRITING CENTER A N N U A L R E P O R T

2014 2015

WHERE ARE YOU NOW? Send us an e-mail or follow us on Facebook or Twitter!

W H E R E A R E T H E Y N O W ?

Graduate Writing Specialist Liana Silva (2011-2013), now in Houston, TX, edits Women in Higher Edu-cation and writes for Inside Higher Ed and Sounding Out! A Blog About Sound Studies.

Graduate Consultant Gloria Funcheon (M.A., Russian and East Euro-pean Studies, 2013) is Communications Assis-tant at Save the Chil-dren International in Tajikistan and Kyrgy-stan.

Humanities-Western Civilization Graduate Writing Fellow Nick Sambaluk (Ph.D, His-tory, 2012) is an Assis-tant Professor at Purdue assigned to the Department of History at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, NY.

Undergraduate Consultant Julie Wood (B.A., Jour-nalism and Political Science, 2000) is Head of Communi-cations and External Affairs at the Cochrane Collabora-tion, Wolvercote, Oxfordshire, UK.

Lead Office Assistant Kelly Schrepfer (B.A., Environmental Sci-ence, 2011) is Assistant Vice President and Business Consultant at Bank of America Mer-chant Services, Kansas City, MO.

FEEDBACK FROM OUR CLIENTS

On Individual Consultations:

“Adam is very polite, patient, and helpful. He helped me generate new ideas and explained things in detail. I enjoyed working with him!”

“I came to brainstorm ideas and to get a starting point on my paper from the topic I generated. Charlesia was extreme-ly helpful with that and I got ideas I wouldn't have come up with on my own.” “Tessa definitely helped me organize what I wanted to say and pushed my paper along.” “Giselle was so focused while working with me as if the paper were hers. She was really wonderful!” “Kyle has eagle eyes!” “Brittany really helped me out. My final draft is going to be amazing!

On Graduate Writing Groups: “Great for keeping you motivated.” “I really liked the flexibility of the group. We switched from editing as a group to writing and reading papers during the assigned time. It always fit our needs.” “It’s really helpful for international students—a good op-portunity to practice writing and speaking.” “The writing group is more than a writing group to me; it’s a social support network!” On Graduate Research/Write-Ins:

“The Write-Ins provide a good learning environment.”

“It was a good motivation for me to come to the library.”

“Very informative! Very quiet and staff was friendly and help-ful.”

“Events like this should be held more often!”

KU WRITING CENTER A N N U A L R E P O R T

2014 2015

$25 FUNDS… Two hour-long sessions for a graduate writing group.

$50 FUNDS… Six hours of one-on-one consultations with Writing Center undergraduate peer consultants.

$100 FUNDS… Training for five Writing Fellows.

$250 FUNDS... Materials and refreshments for All-Staff meetings.

$500 FUNDS… One undergraduate writing consultant at six hours per week for one semester.

$1,000 FUNDS… Replacements for current iPads used during consultations and presentations.

$5,000 FUNDS... A Graduate Intern to organize writing groups for graduate and undergraduate writing groups.

$25,000 FUNDS... Expansion of the Undergraduate Writing Fellows program from fifteen KU Core courses per semester to thirty.

I N I T I AT I V E S F O R 2 0 1 5 - 2 0 1 6

The Writing Center aims to deepen the culture of writing at the University of Kansas and to provide a central hub for

that culture. To do this, we plan to move beyond a single-service model of writing support (based on individual in-

teractions with writers that are "just-in-time," or "service at the point of need") towards more sustained and sus-

tainable relationships with students, staff, and faculty. We will develop multiple contacts and ongoing collaboration

through...

Repeat individual consultations with the same tutor

Undergraduate and graduate writing groups

Writing Fellows programs for both undergraduate and graduate courses

Impactful writing events and series of events

These initiatives recognize that faculty are key to creating a facilitative environment for writing in their classes and

in their disciplines. Faculty who receive support for their own academic writing are likely to better understand their

students’ writing support needs. They request in-class workshops for their undergraduates, recommend writing

groups to their graduate students and advisees, encourage students to attend KU Writing Center events, and re-

quest assistance with assignment redesign.

In sum, by devoting personnel and funding to consulting, writing groups, Writing Fellows, writing events, and en-

hanced collaboration with campus allies, we will support and sustain a culture of writing at KU and contribute

mightily to the retention and graduation of undergraduate and graduate students across the disciplines.

H E L P W R I T E O U R F U T U R E !

Help us help writers! Donate today.

KU WRITING CENTER A N N U A L R E P O R T

2014 2015

G R A D U AT I N G S T U D E N T E M P L O Y E E S

Erica Arbaiza

B.A., Spanish & SLH

Amanda Hemmingsen

M.A., English

Jay Lee

B.A., English

Logan Isaman

B.A., English

Eric Chase, M.A.

Global & Int’l Studies

Emily Brown

B.S., Journalism

Haley Fisher

B.A., English

Marie Schmitz

B.A., Biology

Ellen Keegan

B.A., English

Michael Shaw

B.S., Journalism

KU WRITING CENTER A N N U A L R E P O R T

2014 2015

Anshutz Library, Room 424

1301 Hoch Auditoria Drive

Lawrence, KS 66045

785-864-2399

writing@ku.edu

writing.ku.edu