Princeton ladder faculty are invited to teach a writing seminar in the Princeton Writing Program in 2008-09. In recognition of the effort of preparing for and teaching a Writing Seminar, participating professors receive a salary override of $7,500 the first time they teach a Writing Seminar and $6,000 each time thereafter. Professors normally teach the seminar in place of a regular course. Individual departmental chairs may request up to 0.17 FTE from the Office of the Dean of the Faculty to replace a course that the participating professor would otherwise have taught.
Even those professors who have never taught writing before will be well prepared to enter the classroom: all those who teach in the Program learn practical strategies for designing assignments, devising in-class exercises and activities, and responding to student writing. Attendance is required at an orientation May 27-29, 2008, and a follow-up day of workshops September 2-3, 2008. All Program faculty must also attend a one-day retreat on September 4, 2008, and two meetings during the term in which they're teaching. Numerous other teaching workshops are optional.
If you're interested in teaching a Writing Seminar, please contact Dr. Kerry Walk, Director of the Princeton Writing Program, at kwalk@princeton.edu, by March 24, 2008. Please note that departmental staffing needs take precedence over Writing Program needs; professors should discuss their interest with their Chair and secure his or her approval before making a firm commitment to teaching a Writing Seminar.
The Writing Seminars in Brief
General information about the Princeton Writing Program is available at http://www.princeton.edu/writing. An overview of the Writing Seminars is available at http://www.princeton.edu/~writing/pwp.pdf. Below is a brief description of the Writing Seminars.
Each Writing Seminar focuses on a special topic of intellectual interest, ranging from global warming and animal intelligence to ancient seafaring and the American Dream. But the primary goal is for students to learn the fundamentals of written inquiry and argument—how to frame compelling questions and problems, develop and organize ideas, make and substantiate claims, purposefully integrate a wide variety of sources, and revise for greater cogency and clarity. Students also learn to navigate the University library and receive instruction in essential library research skills.
Writing Seminar faculty design their own writing seminars according to shared curricular guidelines, as follows:
(1) Unlike most other courses, which are organized primarily around readings, Writing Seminars are organized primarily around writing, totaling about 30 finished pages. The major assignments include (i) a short paper (usually 5-6pp.), (ii) a slightly longer paper (usually 6-8pp.), (iii) a research paper (usually 10-12pp.), and (iv) a short, flexible final assignment due the day before Dean’s Date (the last day of Reading Period) and therefore known as the Dean’s Date Assignment. Students prepare for the first three assignments through brief pre-draft assignments as well as a draft, which faculty comment on in writing and discuss with student writers in 45-minute individual conferences. For the Dean’s Date Assignment, the writing process and faculty feedback vary, depending on the nature of the assignment.
(2) Readings are limited to 500-750 pages per term. This ballpark figure doesn’t include student writing, which is a primary focus of discussion in every Writing Seminar. Readings typically include books and articles, as well as excerpts of longer works collected in source packets.
(3) Writing Seminars meet for two 80-minute periods per week. In class, students discuss readings (often in terms of writing), receive instruction on key writing skills, and examine their own writing in draft workshops and small groups.
The Writing Program has had representation from a range of departments and programs, including Art & Archaeology (Thomas Leisten), Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (Jeff Greenblatt), Computer Science (Doug Clark), Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (Jim Gould), East Asian Studies (Willard Peterson), Electrical Engineering (Sharad Malik), English (Oliver Arnold, Jennifer Greeson, Benj Widiss), French & Italian (David Bellos, Gaetana Maronne-Puglia), History (Eagle Glassheim, Molly Greene, Ted Rabb), Integrative Genomics (Matt Brauer, David Gresham, David Hess), Latin American Studies (Michael Stone), Linguistics (Maggie Browning), Music (Peter Jeffery, Simon Morrison), Psychology (Charlie Gross, Sue Sugarman), Slavic Languages and Literatures (Michael Wachtel), and the Woodrow Wilson School (Udai Tambar, Sharon Weiner).
The continuing participation of departmental faculty will help ensure a vibrant culture of writing at Princeton. Come join us!