Writing Fellows transformed - new perspectives on a programme in transition

Call for Contributions

Writing Fellow programmes based on the American model have existed at various universities in Germany for around ten years - initially introduced at the universities of Frankfurt am Main and Frankfurt an der Oder. Since then, the programmes, sometimes under different names (writing assistants, textographers, etc.), have established themselves as a successful model for supporting academic writing.

The planned publication builds on the volumes The Writing Fellow Programme and Teaching and Learning with Writing Fellows (Voigt/Dreyfürst/Liebetanz, Voigt, both wbv 2018). Against the backdrop of a changing higher education landscape, it examines both the content-related and structural challenges of Writing Fellow programmes as well as relevant further developments of the ideas and approaches of this model for integrated writing support in the subjects. The focus is not only on the current state of affairs, but also explicitly on processes of change and new perspectives. In short: the future of Writing Fellow programmes.

The publication therefore pursues central questions of transformation:

EFFECTS: What impact have the programmes had on the writing, reading, learning and teaching of those involved? Have they also brought about structural changes, e.g. a spread of peer tutoring or an influence on the role of writing in teaching?

• WORTHY: What has stood the test of time and has always been continued in the Writing Fellow programmes? Why?

• CHALLENGES: What (structural) challenges do the programmes face at universities? How do they respond to these, both on a practical and organisational level as well as programmatically and didactically?

• NEW: How have the programmes developed in recent years? What exactly has changed? What are the new challenges facing Writing Fellow stakeholders at universities?

• FUTURE: How could and should the Writing Fellow programmes be further developed from the current perspective ("Future Writing Fellows")?

Structure of the publication:
The publication brings together statements from the three central groups:

1) Writing Fellows (best practices, students' perspectives)

2) Coordinators of Writing Fellow programmes (writing centre perspective)

3) Teachers (subject perspective)

If you would like to make the Writing Fellow programme at your location visible in the publication, but do not wish to submit your own text contribution, please send only the short profile.

The query has three objectives:

1. express interest in contributing: You have the opportunity to indicate your interest in contributing to the anthology.

2. create a short profile: By providing a few details about the general conditions of your programme, you can help to establish comparable contexts for readers. These "hard facts" do not need to appear in the article.

3. strengthen visibility: Even if there are currently no resources available to submit a contribution, you can make your programme visible via the short profile - for an overview or as an impulse for networking and transfer in the community, for example.

How does the query work?
You can specifically fill in the fields that you think will help to make your programme visible. Only a few details marked with an asterisk are mandatory - they are used by the editors for classification, contact and better systematisation in the anthology.

The questionnaire has a modular structure: you can answer individual sections or use the complete set of questions - depending on your needs and time.

Contribution forms
We would be delighted if you, as coordinators/leaders of Writing Fellow programmes, would forward the call to interested Writing Fellows and teachers who would like to describe the programmes from their perspective, including the above questions. All texts should be sent back to the editors in a collective form. Each site may submit a maximum of 35,000 characters including spaces.

NARRATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS: (2,500-5,000 characters including spaces)

• O-tones
• Voices
• Visions
• Experiences

PRACTICE REPORTS: (max. 5,000-15,000 characters incl. spaces)

• Organisation & procedure
• Experience reports and exchange
• Special features of the programme
• Reflections on situations from the Writing Fellow's everyday life
• Workshop reports

THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS: (max. 20,000-25,000 characters including spaces)

• Research discourse
• Critical and conceptual analyses of the topic
• Evaluation results