Re: the 'logic' of training tutors thru' EN

["Deirdre M. Paulsen" <deirdre_paulsen@byu.edu>]

Our training course for Writing Fellows is Honors 303:  Theory and Practice
of Tutoring Writing (mouthful!).  I love having it as an Honors designation
under the department "General Education and Honors" because it emphasizes
the writing-across-the curriculum nature of the courses we handle and of my
tutors (only about 1/3 to 1/2 being English majors; I have many pre med
majors who are tutoring science courses).  There is a movement right now to
transfer us to the college of Humanities where I assume we'd assume a
"humanities" or "English" course designation.  I think this would limit the
cross-curricular nature of both the tutors and the faculty we attract!
Anyone have any experience with this?  I need to write memoes to the
powers-that-be.
 

At 04:37 PM 11/5/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Virginia--
>
>Our training course is English 265--The Writing Conference. My experience
>with the course has been the same as Wes's. After reading the other
>training course descriptions, I suppose there may be a number of logical
>reasons to designate the course as an English course. In my case, however,
>I tend to agree with Wes; I see no particular reason for it to be part of
>the English Department courseload. In fact, I've considered looking into
>other possible designations in order to emphasize the cross-curricular
>nature of the course and, by association, the work in the Writing Room.
>
>karl
>
>
>>Our training course is English 236x: Tutoring Writing.  To be honest,
>>though, I don't see that there *is* any logical reason for it to be
>>designated as an English course.  It does not count for students as a major
>>requirement, has no affiliation with the department's writing
>>concentration, enrolls at least as many students from outside English as
>>students within, has no special pedagogical affiliation with any other
>>course in the department, and does not count in my teaching load.  The only
>>reason that it got an English designation is that I'm in the English Dept.
>>and there was no other institutional structure available through which I
>>could propose a course to our Curriculum Council.
>>
>>Wes
>>
>>
>>
>>---------------            --------------------------    -------
>>| Wes Chapman | \          | wchapman@titan.iwu.edu |    | ... |
>>-----------------------------------------------------  / -------
>> | Associate Professor of English |     \ -----------------------
>> ---------------------------------- \     | Writing Coordinator |
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>| convenor, Teaching and Learning Technology Roundtable |
>>---------------------------------------------------------------
>>               /                | Illinois Wesleyan University |
>>    ------------------          | P.O. Box 2900                |
>>    | (309)-556-3090 |          | Bloomington, IL 61702-2900   |
>>    ------------------          --------------------------------
>
>
>Jennifer Onofrio
>and
>Karl Fornes
>jenandkarl@scescape.net
>
>"Insert your favorite quotation here."
>
>
>
Deirdre M. Paulsen
Writing Fellows and Writing Across the Curriculum
Brigham Young University