Other People’s Writing Peer Mentoring for Academic Writing

Christine Hardy and Ed Foster

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Student Academic Writing

• Given time constraints

• Taken as a given that there are problems with students’ academic writing– Changing nature of writing in school & FE– Greater diversity in student intake– Higher numbers & lower staff/ student ratios– Increasing use of alt formats for comms

• Has consequences for learners – In extreme cases this includes retention

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Question:

• In small groups, please consider the different types of writing students undertaking an undergraduate programme are asked to do

– 2 minutes

– Prizes for the longest (legitimate) list

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At least 64 different types of writing, including:

- Essay - Reflective journal- Examination essay - Log book- Final year undergraduate - Film Script- Dissertation - Technical report- Literature review - PDP- Précis - Art/design critique- OHP/PowerPoint slides - CV- Handouts - Annotated bibliography- Report - Book review- Poster text - Case study- Work placement log - Business plan- Performance review - Popular article- Written material to support - visual work

(Ganobcsik- Williams, 2004)

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Approaches to developing writing

• Generic Writing Courses– Often part of 1st year skills/ professional modules

• Teaching Writing in the Disciplines (WID)– Reflecting on the discipline-specific nature of academic writing

• Study Support/Study Skills Tutoring- Central/ School/ faculty based

• Computerised Support for Student Writing– Usually tests and exemplars, some experiments in feedback

• Dedicated one-to-one tutoring in academic writing- by an academic- by a specialist non-academic- Provided by an external source- Peer mentoring

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Peer Mentoring

• Mentoring is “the relationship between a less experienced person and a more experienced partner who guides and supports [them]”

– Falchikov (2001)

• Originates from US, Supplemental Instruction (SI)– Originally for students on demanding subjects with high failure rates– Well integrated into programmes of study in which SI sessions follow the

curriculum, providing structured revision/ reflection

• Sporadic use in UK– Most significant impact at Bournemouth – Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) http://pal.bournemouth.ac.uk/

• In CADBE– Postgraduate students helping undergraduates with academic writing

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Academic Writing Mentoring in CADBE

All mentors are:

- Postgraduate students

- Recruited and selected

- Trained

- Supported

All mentors worked in pairs

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Recruitment and Training

• Job Description and Personnel Specification

• The interview

• Training day– Reflected on own writing experience– Reviewed sample essays – Discussed boundaries and limitations

• Support for the mentors– Learning & Teaching Officer (Academic Writing) sat in once a week to discuss

issues and challenges with mentors– Discussed problems with school staff

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Marketing the scheme

• Marketing to undergraduate students– Posters– Emails

– Over time, increasingly through academic staff

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Managing the process

• Timetabling/scheduling & venue– Hard-to-find rooms– Working across two schools

• Employment and payment issues– Administratively burdensome

• Staff engagement in the scheme and embedding within the College– Needed much greater level of buy-in from staff

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Lessons learnt

• Feedback from colleagues– Students who used service were positive about the experience

– But it’s not an ‘easy’ option– Recruiting mentors and training relatively easy to facilitate– Requires relatively high levels of administrative support (timetabling & pay)– Unless embedded as ‘normal’, hard to get undergraduate engagement– Mentors need information from subject tutors

• Mentors (video)– Some thoughts from two of the student mentors– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FQIA7mwRFU