Writing Program wins national award for excellence

The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) has chosen the Writing Program to receive its 2008-09 Writing Program Certificate of Excellence.

The program, which serves more than 10,000 students annually with its first-year and junior-year writing courses as well as its popular Writing Center, was cited for “being impressively well grounded theoretically and pedagogically as well as historically.”

The award recognizes the program for meeting the needs of students, instructors and the campus; providing exemplary professional development for faculty of all ranks; treating faculty respectfully and professionally; using current best practices in the field; serving diverse communities; offering classes of appropriate size; using effective and ongoing assessment and placement processes; and having an administrator with academic credentials in writing.

“This is the most important national honor for writing programs,” says David Fleming, associate professor of English and director of the Writing Program since 2007. “There’s real competition for this award and we are in good company with Washington State University and North Carolina State, who are also being honored.”

The awards will be presented during the CCCC’s annual meeting from March 11-14 in San Francisco.

For the 100 or so graduate student teaching associates who teach the first-year classes, says Fleming, “It’s a recognition of their hard work and an affirmation of the extensive training that we put them through.”

Every year, he says, the program receives more than 100 applications from graduate students to join its teaching cadre, but can offer new positions to only about a quarter of them. Primarily composed of students studying creative writing or literature through the English Department, the instructors are a “very talented group,” says Fleming.

In fact, since 1981 the Writing Program’s graduate teaching associates have won 11 Distinguished Teaching Awards, more than any other department on campus, says Fleming. “When it comes to course evaluations,” he says, “our teaching associates are exactly on par with the university average for all faculty—impressive given that our teachers are new to the profession and the course is a requirement for all freshmen.”

According to Fleming, the CCCC award also honors his predecessors, who developed and nurtured the writing program since it opened its doors in 1982.

“It was groundbreaking at the time,” says Fleming, “to have a general course for freshmen required for all students and to require as well an advanced junior-year writing course in every major.”

The program soon became a national model, he says. In 2003, U.S. News and World Report cited the junior-year program as one of 25 “Programs that Work” in writing in the disciplines. “The brilliance of the design,” according to Fleming, is that junior-year writing is taught by faculty within students’ individual area of study, allowing the courses to be tailored by discipline and making the subject matter more relevant to students.

Fleming says, “In many ways, the award is a tribute to Charlie Moran,” the founding director who laid the groundwork for the program. Since then, several other “accomplished writers and teachers” such as Anne Herrington, Peter Elbow, Donna LeCourt and Marcia Curtis have led and fine-tuned the program to meet the needs of UMass Amherst students.

“We’ve had extraordinary leadership from these people,” Fleming says. “I’m very cognizant of standing on their shoulders.”

One of the innovations introduced along the way was the opening of a Writing Center in the Du Bois Library that offers free tutoring and assistance for all students. The writing program also provides ongoing education through experimental writing courses for students plus workshops and the publication of a sourcebook for junior-year instructors.

Student writing is showcased through an anthology published annually by the program. The essay collections are also used for teaching in the first-year classes. “The anthology highlights what student writers can do, given encouragement and support,” says Fleming.

The program also uses a custom edition of the Penguin Handbook, which all first-year students are required to purchase for class. Junior-year instructors are encouraged to use the book as well. In addition, the program produces its own reader of essays from professional writers called the Text Wrestling Book. Royalties from that book pay for publication of the student anthology, says Fleming.

Undergraduates are also recognized each May at the Celebration of Writing festival, where a wide range of student writing is showcased through readings and awards. This year’s festival is scheduled for May 13 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Goodell.

More Information

Writing Program website

Writing Program teaching associates

March 3, 2009.

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