Ways to Increase Meaningful Writing Experiences
| by CTLR
On January 24, Peer Writing Tutor Jack Torpey ‘24 and Director of the Professor Genie Giaimo, presented on college students’ meaningful writing experiences as part of the 2022 .
The talk began with insights from the book The Meaningful Writing Project: Learning, Teaching, and Writing in Higher Education, followed by the results of an on-campus study conducted by Torpey in 2021. Key points discussed in the workshop are shared below.
Four qualities of writing assignments that allow college students to have meaningful writing experiences.
- Personal connection
- Collaborative immersion
- Real-world relevance
- Impact on future self
Recommendations for faculty to promote meaningful writing experiences.
- Use surveys, interviews, and other methods to understand students’ relationships to writing at the beginning of a course.
- Allow students to provide candid, constructive feedback on their writing assignments.
- Maintain an emphasis on developing students’ written form through courses and in-course sessions on style, structure, and rhetoric.
by Michelle Eodice, Anne Ellen Geller, and Neal Lerner
A recording of the presentation and other event resources are available at . For further details or questions contact Jack Torpey at jtorpey@middlebury.edu or Dr. Giaimo at ggiaimo@middlebury.edu.