Program Information for Faculty

Process at a glance:

1. Meet your consultants
2. Integrate them into Canvas, introduce them to the class, and inform students about the program
3. Decide which assignments consultants will participate in
4. Coordinate schedules
5. Make consultant sessions a requirement and collect drafts
6. Meet with your consultants prior to each assignment
7. Receive and review session notes
8. Other ways to take advantage of consultants
9. Evaluate consultants
10. Keep track of your time-investment for compensation

Detailed process:

1. Meet your consultants
   It would be best for faculty and embedded consultants to hold a brief meeting early in
   the semester for the following reasons:
   • determine schedules and overall timeline for the course
   • determine which assignments will require a meeting with a consultant
   • determine what the general concerns of the instructor are
   • determine what the purpose of the consultant sessions will be and therefore how long individual meetings should be
   • determine how sign-ups for meetings should take place
2. Integrate them into Canvas, introduce them to the class, and inform students about the programConsultants may be added to the Canvas site of the course, at the instructor’s  discretion. From past experience, it does make access to the assignments and signing up for meetings with the students easier.
   Schedules permitting, the instructor may choose to invite consultants for a brief class visit to introduce themselves; otherwise, consultants can post a picture and short bio as an announcement on Canvas
   Note: For assistance with Canvas integration, faculty or consultants can directly contact the Writing Center Coordinator Luca Meng, at luca.meng@sjtu.edu.cn
3. Decide which assignments they will participate in
   Consultants may work with students on 2-3 assignments throughout the semester.
   Sessions can take anywhere from 15 – 45 minutes depending on the instructor’s focus: for example, if the meeting is intended to review the thesis statement only, 15 minutes may suffice; however, 45 minutes may be necessary to review the entire paper for clarity of argument, coherence, etc.
4. Coordinate schedules
   To ensure enough time for holding consultant meetings as well as to allow for any revision as the result of those meetings, drafts should be available to consultants 7-10 days prior to the due-date.
5. Make consultant sessions a requirement and collect drafts
   It is crucial for the success of this program that the *meeting with the consultant be a required part of completing the assignment*. It instills the necessity of the revision process as an important part of the writing process. How that requirement is factored is of course up to the individual instructor.
   Relatedly, it lends authority to the process and leads to more ‘serious’ drafts if faculty collects the drafts to be reviewed with the writing consultants.
6. Meet with your consultants prior to each assignment to go over any concerns or points you want the consultants to focus on
   Consultants do not grade, and the responsibility for the final product falls solely to the writer.
   The consultants’ role is to respond to the concerns students bring to the table, as well as facilitate students’ understanding and implementation of your expectations, in a collaborative manner.
   To that end, I recommend holding a short meeting before each assignment that involves writing consultants to clarify areas of focus and the particular requirements.
7. Receive and review session notes
   Shortly after each round, consultants will send you a document including brief 1-2 paragraph notes on each meeting, highlighting the main concerns and how they were addressed.
   I hope you will find these notes useful as an overview of students’ strengths, questions, and overall understanding of the assignment.
8. Other ways to take advantage of consultants
   Time and schedules permitting, you may request that consultants participate in inclass peer review sessions, run a small workshop, a group writing session outside of class, or related activities.
9. Evaluate Consultants and Program
   At the end of the semester, I will send you consultant evaluations to complete. Of course, please let me know anytime during the semester there is an issue.
10. Keep track of your time-investment for compensation
    Your participation in the program is compensated at the Writing Center rate