In the process of redesigning some resources for DePaul’s First-Year Writing Faculty, I reread the Meaningful Writing Project by Michele Eodice, Anne Ellen Geller, and Neal Lerner. It’s a great read for anyone looking to figure out why college writers can be disengaged and frustrated. There is a lot of insight, mainly from student testimonials, about how assignment content and design can hinder students’ ability to understand why their writing is necessary or effective for their learning.
It’s also a great read for any UCWbL tutor in need of a new perspective on why we do what we do. In the three-year, cross-institutional study that undergirds the book’s claims, there are lots of statements from the seven hundred student writers studied about how valuable it is for them to:
- collaborate with others (UCWbL core belief #4)
- understand how learning goals can be related to a writing project (UCWbL Core Belief #3)
- be able to transfer writing skills from one task to the next (UCWbL Core Practice #7)
- be able to draw from one’s own expertise and experiences (UCWbL Core Practice #9)
In addition to a few other factors, all of the above contributed to what the authors determined made for meaningful writing—something the scholars argue is not as prevalent as it should be in higher education. Although the book is largely aimed at those who assign writing, one of the researchers was a writing center specialist (Michelle Eodice), so there are also a few suggestions for the role tutors might play in a meaningful writing project:
“Rather than, Do you think this is meeting your professor’s assignment?, the question could be, What is your professor hoping you will learn and do in this assignment, and what are you hoping to learn and do. Rather than saying to a student who is not connecting with a prompt, ‘Well let’s see what we can do about to get it done,’ a tutor might say, ‘Have you ever thought about this before? Can you imagine any time you’ll think about this again? How might something from your own experience help you complete this assignment” (p. 139) .
While many of us have likely used the same or similar questions, I also know that many of us are struggling to connect to our learning and other work as much as we used to in the pre-pandemic times–or at least I am. For me, these reminders about how writing can and should be meaningful have been very welcome.
For my last quarter of tutoring at the UCWbL, I’ll be looking to see how I can take our UCWbL belief that “everyone is a writer” a step further: “Everyone can use writing to have meaningful experiences.”
To do this, I’ll be looking to slow down and remember the big picture–which, as Damon Linklater attests in this article written for magazine The Week, is extra tricky nowadays given how the pandemic has made it hard to not just think about but even imagine the future.
I’ll also be heeding Eodice, Lerner, and Geller’s advice to help make writers’ writing choices, goals, and processes explicit (Can you tell me why you…? What are you hoping to do with …?); guide writers to think of both their future and past selves (Is there anything you can draw in from your other classes or experiences for this synthesis? How do you think ___ might change how you approach ___ in the future?); and emphasize writing as a social process (Even though I’m a tutor, I also schedule writing center appointments because of how helpful it is for me to think through my work with others…).
I’ll be asking questions to help writers recognize their own agency, ability to make meaning (I’ve never thought about this before but the way that you ___ is really convincing and is making me think differently), and opportunities as meaning-makers and researchers (In my experience, it’s always easier to pick a topic you really care about rather than one you think will be easy because…).
I’ll also look for ways in which I can help writers see that what they’re doing matters, that they’re building skills and knowledge that will be with them for the rest of their lives (I know this is time-consuming now but these types of skills are so crucial when …).
I’d love to hear more strategies and go-to questions that tutors have used to help writers make their writing meaningful.
References
Eodice, M., Geller, A. E., & Lerner, N. (2016). The meaningful writing project: Learning, teaching, and writing in higher education. Utah State University Press.