College Writing Program
Graduate & Post-Graduate Positions
Please note:
WRT 105 and WRT 105E were formerly CAS 105 and CAS 105E.
WRT 571/ENG 571 and WRT 572 /ENG 572 were formerly CAS 571/ENG 571 and CAS 572/ENG 572.
The Dudley Doust Writing Associates Fellowships are awarded to outstanding writing instructors from a variety of disciplines who have taught in the College Writing Program for at least four semesters. To teach as a Doust fellow, recipients must be current University of Rochester graduate students in good standing at the beginning of each semester for which the fellowship is awarded.
Dudley Doust Writing Associates teach one WRT 105 course in the fall and the same course in the spring and serve as informal mentors to less experienced instructors.
Instructors may apply and hold a Dudley Doust fellowship for more than one academic year. If you will be applying for a Doust Position to teach WRT 105 and would like to simultaneously apply for either WRT 105E or ESOL Program courses, please indicate these additional preferences in your cover letter. The review committee will consider your application with each listed possibility in mind.
Please complete and submit the application by January 31, to Deborah Rossen-Knill by email at cwp@mail.rochester.edu or at the College Writing Program Main Office, Rush Rhees G-121. While we prefer electronic copies, if submitting hard copy, please do not staple.
Letters of Recommendation may be submitted via email to cwp@mail.rochester.edu.
The application review committee for all teaching positions is made up of a subset of the College’s interdisciplinary writing committee. Standing members of the selection committee include the College Writing Program director and the instructor training coordinator, unless there is a conflict of interest.
The review process for teaching positions: Each committee member independently ranks each application on a 1-5 scale, with five being the best, based on the applicant’s teaching philosophy, writing sample, teaching evaluations, letter of recommendation and any other supporting material the applicant chooses to submit.
Committee members assign a single ranking that accounts for the extent to which each candidate demonstrates the ability to
- use writing to explore and express ideas and balances process and product,
- teach argument as a means to analyze, formulate and test ideas,
- teach invention, revision and editing (and understands the difference,)
- seriously consider whether students learn principles of academic writing and how to make choices as a professional writer,
- use a student-centered approach,
- allow students to fully investigate student ideas,
- communicate a love of language and writing and teaching,
- create a positive learning environment for students, and
- offer a course that many undergraduates would find interesting.
In addition, preference may be given to those able to and interested in teaching WRT 105E.
APPLICATION FOR DUDLEY DOUST ASSOCIATES
Writing a WRT Course Description
Teaching WRT 105 is a unique experience because it allows you to pick a topic/theme/issue of your choice and use it to teach writing. However, make sure that your course description clearly communicates that writing is the primary focus. Before you begin writing your description, we highly recommended that you familiarize yourself with the general description of WRT 105 at: http://writing.rochester.edu/courses/WRT105.html. As the general description might suggest, one of the goals of your course description should be to show your audience how writing will be used to explore your topic. Some of the pitfalls in choosing your topic are limiting it to your own research interests, using language that is highly technical to describe it, and making it seem as if your course has two topics, writing and your theme.
One way to approach the course description, and your course in general, is to come up with a few guiding questions that outline the broad focus of your class. You also want to give prospective students a sense of what kinds of texts they will be working with (Note: you don’t have to list the exact texts at this point. You can just say various films, works of fiction, or philosophical tracts, for example, or mention authors’ names).
Before you begin writing your course description, take a look at a variety of current course descriptions at: http://writing.rochester.edu/ (once there, click on “Courses” and then “Course Archive”, then click the "Descriptions" link to view past course descriptions). Take note of what’s similar across disciplines, find one that you like, and decide what it is you like about it.
In writing your course description you should imagine undergraduates as your primary audience, and their parents, college faculty, and administrators as your secondary audiences.
For the sake of multi-section uniformity, your course description should:
- Emphasize the learning objectives outlined at: http://writing.rochester.edu/courses/alternativecriteria.html
- Involve a theme that allows students to make connections across course readings and develop a basic understanding of your theme,
- Model the kind of writing you’d like to receive from your students,
- Appeal to freshmen,
- Be no more than 1,024 characters including spaces,
- Include peer feedback, self-assessment, revision, and an 8-10 page argumentative research paper.
