The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning

Writing Fellows Program

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Writing Fellows Program

The Writing Fellows Program was established in 1982 to help integrate the study of writing into courses throughout the university. Writing Fellows are trained peer tutors who partner with faculty across disciplines to provide students with written and verbal feedback, advice, and encouragement on their writing in progress.

Coming from all academic disciplines, Writing Fellows learn inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist approaches to peer tutoring. Fellows are not content experts or arbiters of “good writing,” and their purpose is not to ensure better grades on papers. Instead, Writing Fellows encourage students to see writing and learning as dynamic, collaborative processes that acknowledge writers’ diverse backgrounds, learning experiences, and writing goals.

The Program's Writing Fellows currently support courses across STEM, Social Sciences, and Humanities disciplines each academic year. In a ‘fellowed’ course, students submit the first draft of at least two assignments to their Writing Fellow before it is due to the instructor. Writing Fellows comment on students' written drafts and hold individual conferences with students, where they discuss revision strategies. Faculty who partner with the program also receive support on how to integrate draft writing into their course designs.

The Writing Fellows Program provides an important element of support for Brown's requirement that all its graduates achieve competence in writing. The program’s interactive, collegial approach reinforces the conviction that writing is a communicative process best accomplished in active dialogue with other people.

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Writing Fellows Course Descriptions

One of many student-driven organizations at Brown, Writing Fellows work in a spirit of collegiality, helping to extend intellectual discourse beyond the classroom. Mutually engaged, Fellows and Fellowees ultimately do more than focus on writing; they shape their own and each other’s education, and in so doing they help to keep vibrant what is most unique and valuable about Brown.

Writing Fellows Outreach

Campus outreach is an integral part of being a Writing Fellow. Through this work, the program furthers its mission of promoting inclusive, equitable writing approaches across campus by increasing opportunities for the student community to engage in meaningful dialog about their writing experiences and practices.

Apply to the Writing Fellows Program

Writing Fellows are trained peer tutors who partner with faculty and teaching assistants to provide one-on-one writing support in courses across the curriculum. Faculty members can apply to work with Writing Fellows in their courses. Undergraduate students who have completed ENGL 1190M: The Teaching and Practice of Writing can apply to become Writing Fellows.

Writing Fellows 40th Anniversary

Alumni of Brown's Writing Fellows program gathered, both in person and via Zoom, on October 12, 2023 to celebrate the program's 40th anniversary. Sheridan Center Executive Director, Mary Wright, welcomed the attendees; and Dean of the Graduate School, Thomas A. Lewis, a Brown graduate and Writing Fellow alumnus himself, introduced the panel. Tori Haring-Smith, the program's founder, moderated the panel discussion with Austin Jackson, Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Nonfiction Writing Program and former program director; Jenna Morton-Aiken, Sheridan's current Senior Associate Director for Writing and English Language Support; and Tierra Sherlock, a current Writing Fellow.

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