How the writing support group has developed

Dec. 09
comments welcome

Winter-Spring '09

Assembling different avenues of writing support & a failed attempt to start a writing support group

A year ago we started to assemble different avenues of writing support, http://cct.wikispaces.umb.edu/WritingSupport:

• "CCT wants to provide support beyond regular classes for students to develop their writing. For us, it is not about whether students know the difference between it's and its. We see writing improvement in broad terms as students conveying their distinctive voices and thinking through writing and developing their voices and thinking through writing, sharing writing, and revising in response to comments."

A graduate assistant volunteered to convene a writing support group, but no time suited enough students and the GA did some one-on-one tutoring instead.

Summer '09

GPD advertizes a writing support for students with incompletes and prepares a "prospectus" of Writing Competencies as a starting point, http://cct.wikispaces.umb.edu/WritingCompetencies .

• "Most accounts of writing competencies begin by emphasizing the analytical work that is needed as you prepare to answer a question set by the instructor or dictating the conventions of academic presentation (e.g., formatting, APA citation). These CCT guidelines, instead, begin with the relationship with yourself, then with readers and the process of revision. It is these parts that are emotionally hardest and, as you develop these first competencies, it should become easier to work on the rest.
• Two themes to be mindful of:
• * Take care of the process and the product will take care of itself.
• * You are not on your own. You are part of a wider community. Respect others for the work they do."

Fall '09

Group begins (for 2 hours on a night when there are two required CCT courses, hosted by the GPD), quickly puts aside the strand of completing incompletes, and evolves from a focus on specific pieces of writing to more general models of support, and comes to articulate themes and establish routines.

Nine students have attended during the semester, with an average of four each time. See http://cct.wikispaces.umb.edu/WritingSupportGroup for very brief "minutes" of each group meeting.

Themes Emerging (as of early December '09)

• Writing support groups need to be free from any hierarchical relations, which means that while participants might use them to work on completing overdue work, that needs to be a voluntary choice and any instructor-student relationship around the overdue work needs to happen outside the group.
• Being able to rely on a consistent meeting allows serendipitous connections and sharing to happen among participants, which reduces the need for a pre-planned "syllabus" or sequence of topics.
• Coming each week allows participants to set concrete, achievable goals and not to lose sight of their writing among the rest of their work-life commitments.
• The writing support group is a way of creating a culture of writing. It addresses the social and affective dimensions of writing.
• Practicing different ways of observing and responding to the writing of peers can lead beyond judgement (by oneself and others).
• It is OK if not much writing gets done during the group meetings because the discussions (especially getting to peek at the interior lives of others) help push back against isolation and create a valuable sense of support when you do make clear time to write.
• Given that we work best with great passion and intensity, a writing support group sometimes needs to be an emotional place, opening up our greatest intensity and serving some personal therapeutic value. The ink on paper may then flow with a passion that follows not only our heart, but also our fluid speaking style, whether it be screaming in frustration one week or walking on clouds with delight the next. In this way we might find our voice, as Peter Elbow refers. (MJ)
• A group allows us to see what other people write and how they write. It's the compare/contrast, being around variety of thinking, ideas and writing styles. Makes it less lonely. (CC)
• Writing is more than generating words. In some ways it is a decision-making process that builds on reading, assessing, reflecting, imagining, remembering. In this light, when we assess how we spend time on writing, all of these aspects "count." (EO)
• The consistent meeting time also validates the commitment we're making, given that there's so much pulling us away. The group is taking a stand that the writing process and products matter-ultimately writers and readers count! (EO)

Spring '10

Group continues, to be led by two recent graduates of the program (one of whom now teaches and assists under a partnership with Cont. Ed.; the other will be given a modest honorarium)

• Again the group will meet on a night when there are two required CCT courses so students taking one of the courses can come to one of the two hours of the support group.