WHAT: A new installment of the Valley Writing Workshop
"Spotlight on Faculty Writing:
Improving Student Writing through Our Own Writing"
Minnesota State University, Mankato's Valley Writing Project will hold its twenty-seventh writing workshop this fall just after Finals Week, from Tuesday, December 19th through Thursday, December 21st.
The theme of our fall workshop is a very practical and timely one: the professional writing of the Faculty. Faculty have been feeling an ever-increasing pressure to write—in the form of articles or books or formal presentations for their peers that contribute to the body of knowledge in their respective fields; in reports or studies related to program or committee involvement; in descriptive or creative pieces that express their professional interests. But, those of us who write or want to write more face some obstacles: heavy teaching loads; time-consuming committee assignments; lots of advising; community responsibilities—the increasingly baroque "PDP" gamut. While these chores continue to drain our time, the need to write—for ourselves as well as for our students who benefit immeasurably from our active engagement in the writing process—becomes no less insistent.
In Fall 2000, we convened the first faculty-writing-centered VWP workshop, and with great success. The VWP Presentation Team proposes, again, to use the workshop to bring faculty writing back to the "front burner." That means using portions of the workshop to deal with the "time" issue (where to find, schedule, and manage it); the aspects of the writing process most meaningful for faculty; the identification of a writing project that individual faculty members can begin to address in the workshop and sustain beyond it; the development of faculty "writing groups" that will provide continuing feedback and the necessary pressure to "produce"; and some of the nuts and bolts of finding the appropriate publishing "audience" for faculty writing. Toward the end of the workshop, we'll pool our resources in order to discover how our writing may positively influence the assignments that we ask our students to do and the quality of their written responses to them.
The writing groups that form during the workshop will continue to be operational beyond it—in fact, VWP Team members will be active contributors to these groups as well, corresponding directly and via D2L. Toward the end of the December workshop, participants and team members will gather to share
We'll expect participants to prepare brief project reports to be submitted to the team by mid-March, and we intend to engage the group reunion to share those reports on the status of faculty writing projects on March 30th, complete with drinks and cookies.
Three days after our final semester duty day—Tuesday, December 19 through Thursday December 21, from 8:30-4:30 in CSU 284.
A presentation day and reunion for participants toward the end of spring semester—Friday, March 30, from 1-3 in CSU 284.
All Minnesota State University, Mankato faculty may apply; since the theme of the workshop—Our Writing—is fairly new, any faculty person can participate, except for those who attended in the last two years.
The workshop will be limited to 20 participants, with representation from each of the colleges in the university.
Completed applications are due by Monday, October 16th. Notification of selection will follow immediately thereafter.
Name ______________________________ College ______________________________
Department ______________________________ Box # ___________________________
Office Phone ______________________________
E-mail Address ______________________________
How many years have you taught at MSU? ______________________________
