For your viewing pleasure…new items on the SNL Writing Website!

Visit the SNL Writing Website, http://snl.depaul.edu/writing/index.html, for the below:

1. A new interview with SNL graduate and former Writing Center Tutor Stephen Hall in which he tells how SNL students can be successful writers, discusses working on his Advanced Project, and tells how the Writing Center can help SNL students.

Recognizing the writing-intensive curriculum of the SNL program, Stephen encourages SNL students to enjoy writing as a process. Even though SNL students have many demands on their time, he believes that it is helpful to view writing as a several step endeavor. Stephen says students need to take time to think about the given writing assignment, time to jot down and outline ideas, and time to write multiple drafts. He offers the example of his own work on his Advanced Project on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and how he allotted himself plenty of time to delve into the material by thinking, researching, and writing about ADHD before he started his first draft.

As an UCWbL tutor, Stephen reminded students how they are uniquely positioned to develop their writing stylistically. This sound bite captures Stephen’s attitude towards taking advantage of the academic writing process, “So often outside of the academic world, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to own your own voice and to communicate that voice. The School for New Learning certainly fosters an atmosphere where one’s voice can be discovered and heard.” Stephen closes by encouraging students to use the UCWbL not as an editing service, but rather as a place to explore the entire writing process from ‘end to beginning;’ first determining what the final outcome of any given writing project will be.

2. Are you writing an Independent Learning Project this quarter? If so, visit here to view two new sample ILPs in the focus area, titled "Learning Six Sigma Theory" and "Collecting and Classifying Folklore."

*Please note that the interview with Mary Erl on writing 10 Independent Learning Projects has been moved from the main page to the ILP page, http://snl.depaul.edu/writing/ILPs.html.

SNL student published in Faith, Hope, and Fiction

SNL student Sara (last name withheld at student’s request) took Steffanie Triller’s Advanced Elective, Write Where You Are: Writing About the Places We Live this Autumn Quarter. The course encourages students to write about places that are meaningful in their everyday experience. As part of the course, Sara wrote a paper entitled “My Transcendent Yoga Mat” about the ways that her experience on her yoga mat is both spiritual and liminal. The essay was published in the January e-newsletter Faith, Hope and Fiction http://www.faithhopeandfiction.com/.

SNL Writing faculty member, Michelle Navarre Cleary, publishes article on SNL Writing Workshop course

SNL Writing faculty member, Michelle Navarre Cleary, recently published an article about SNL's Writing Workshop course, called "How Antonio Graduate on Out of Here - Improving the Success of Adult Students with an Individualized Writing Course."

Abstract:

"Adult students are more anxious about writing for school, less familiar with academic conventions, and more likely to drop out than younger students. For students learning to move between personal, work, and academic discourse communities, the ongoing and explicit writing instruction argued for in the research of Sternglass, Herrington and Curtis, Carroll, and Beaufort is particularly vital. Writing Workshop at DePaul University's School for New Learning is one model for providing this instruction. The course works for students with a broad range of learning styles, prior knowledge, needs, and goals because it is individualized and because it is focused on developing writers rather than on teaching specific kinds of writing. It is open to any student struggling with writing, from incoming basic writers to seniors stuck on final projects. Writing Workshop has improved access for and the retention and success of our adult students. This article shows the need for a class like Writing Workshop, explains how it works, discusses challenges, and describes the experience of the at-risk, nontraditional, adult students in one Writing Workshop class."

Michelle Navarre Cleary. "How Antonio Graduated on Out of Here - Improving the Success of Adult Students with an Individualized Writing Course" The Journal of Basic Writing 30.1 (2011): 101-130.

The full article is available through the DePaul Library, http://library.depaul.edu/.

Upcoming AP and ILP Workshops

The University Center for Writing based Learning is offering workshops for SNL students working on Independent Learning Projects and/ or Advanced Projects in January and February.

Writing tutors and librarians will be available to assist students with their writing and research questions. Writers at all stages of their projects are welcome, and the workshop provides a great opportunity to both share tips and get advice about the ILP and AP.

January 21, 2012 - ILP - O'Hare
January 28, 2012 - ILP - Naperville
February 4, 2012 - AP - O'Hare

*Room number and time TBD

Please contact Edward Evins at eevans6@depaul.edu with any questions.