Faculty Guidelines for Writing Fellows
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Tutor-faculty contact:
o Professors and their Writing Fellows should meet immediately to review each side’s
expectations for the semester. The level of contact thereafter is up to you and your Fellow,
though we recommend checking in with each other at least once every 1-2 weeks.
o While we matched tutors with courses as well as possible, taking majors and class years
into account, scheduling limitations mean that some Fellows will be much more familiar
with the course material than others. So, while every WC tutor knows how to tutor for a
range of levels and disciplines, please take this aspect into account when bringing the
Fellows up to speed and be as specific as possible with your expectations.
Time commitment:
o Every Writing Fellow has committed to making her/himself available for the needs of the
class, but since they all will also be working regular shifts at the WC and maintaining fulltime student status, we ask that their work as Fellows not exceed six hours per week.
o Depending on the needs of the class, we encourage Fellows to hold regular (weekly or
biweekly) office hours for the class. They will still respond to individual requests from
students, but these hours may be especially useful for larger classes.
Attendance in class:
o It is important that a Writing Fellow be familiar with both the class and the students in it, so
while the frequency of class attendance will vary, the Fellow should attend at least once
early on and then another later in the semester as writing assignments occur.
Responsibilities of a WF may include:
o Meeting with students individually for peer review
o Doing in-class review sessions on grammar/citation guidelines/summary and paraphrase,
etc.
o Overseeing in-class peer tutoring workshops
o Attending labs to work with students on reports and provide feedback
o Advising group writing projects/proposals
o Supervising brainstorming or pre-writing sessions, in or outside of class
o Any other writing-related aspect of class that fits within the time limitations
Responsibilities of a Writing Fellow do NOT include:
o Doing coursework including reading (if necessary, please direct them to short summaries)
o Meeting with every student in the class on a regular basis
o Grading of any kind
o Any kind of “substitute” instruction
Please contact us with any questions or concerns:
Farnham Writers’ Center x5290 or
Alexander Champoux, FWC Assistant Director, ajchampo@colby.edu
Dr. Stacey Sheriff, FWC Acting Director (Spring ’13)
ssheriff@colby.edu, x5292