Consortium on Graduate
Communication
Open Meeting
Thursday November 13, 2014
Nigel Caplan & Michelle Cox (Co-Chairs)
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Professional community for educators of
graduate students
Free to join
http://gradconsortium.wordpress.com:
 Listserv (YahooGroup)
 Program directory
 Resources (sample syllabi)
 Presentation PPTs & bibliography
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Ideas and material sharing
Collaboration and research
Professional meeting venues …
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Wednesday March 25, afternoon
(between AAAL and TESOL)
University of Toronto
Keynotes by Chris Feak (and John Swales?),
Jane Freeman, and us
Roundtable discussions
Business meeting
Social gathering
RSVP on the website
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Colloquium: 1:45-3:45 (Arizona Room): The
Future of Graduate Writing Research,
Pedagogy, and Program Design
State of L2 Graduate Writing Support:
Friday, 3:15-3:40 (Gold Room)
CGC Social: Friday evening, after the banquet
Nigel Caplan (nacaplan@udel.edu)
Michelle Cox (michelle.cox@cornell.edu)
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sub-groups on different topics, e.g. dissertation writing
Needs analysis (who to survey, how to do it, how to get
faculty buy-in. Suggestions for paper-surveys to dept
heads; survey students and faculty
Resources for talking to faculty about graduate student
writing across disciplines. What does it look like? What
should we be doing as L2/grad professionals. Resources to
use with faculty.
Strategies for talking to administrators
Sections on website? Or email discussions?
GMU did a ½ day colloquium for dissertation supervisors
and grad faculty. Over 50 came. Need system-wide,
program-specific support.
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Statement of best practices for graduate
student support? How do we legitimize and
get endorsement for such a position? Student
level, faculty/advisor level, program
administration level
Masters students! Different needs.
What to do with multiple disciplines? Is there
generic graduate student support.
Many doctoral students go into industry not
academia. Different writing/speaking needs.
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What is a course, and how do we deliver it? Face-to-face, online, small
break-out workshops, individual consultations.
Differentiating support – how do we help students understand the
“hidden curriculum” and learn how to ask the right questions?
Socialization (GMU has a course for this)
Grad faculty are often unwilling to add additional courses to students’
load. Do courses get credit? Where are they housed? What are the
administrative structures? E.g. GRAD prefix. Thinking about 1-2 credit
courses. Can offer 0 credit with contact hours (for visa requirement) and
required based on placement scores.
Some master’s programs require “professional skills” courses (Cornell)
½ semester courses (target newer students in first half and students
closer to completion in the second half)
Some allow students to take some kind of class as part of
continuing/dissertation registration
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More sample curriculum and syllabi
Writing Center Journal (aka Writing Lab Newsletter) –
special issue on graduate student (CFP is out)
Can we produce a special issue? JSLW?
Reviewing textbooks and other materials
Resource center?
Question/survey of the month on the discussion list. Use
Gdocs to make responses immediately available.
Mini-institutes: how do you set up a program;
considerations for course design – online module. Or face
to face.
Online sessions? Webinars? Google Hangouts?
Share assignment prompts, sample papers, rubrics
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Develop handouts/tip-sheets for faculty (and
administrators) on language acquisition, L2
writing (CC licenses)
Develop section of the website for faculty
info/tip sheets
Arguments why you should … (talking
points) – pathos as well as logos and ethos!