The Program & The Revision Process

The Program
The Writing Fellows Program unites faculty and students in an effort to enhance the quality of writing at Tufts University. Its basic philosophy is that writing is a process and must be taught, learned, and practiced as such.

The program aims to foster the process of writing by making time and energy for review and revision. We hope to show that collaboration within the writing process works across the curriculum and throughout the university to make students at Tufts better, more engaged writers.

As part of the program, new Fellows are required to take a full-credit, semester long course entitled "The Writer's Craft: Approaches to Writing." The course, team taught by Carmen Lowe and Amalia Jiva, trains fellows to become effective writing assistants and encourages them to analyze their own writing habits and styles. Through this process, writing fellows benefit as much from the program as the students with whom they work: they grow and improve as writers.

The Process
Undergraduate Fellows, nominated by faculty and selected through a competitive application process, are assigned to particular classes related to their major fields of interest. They work closely with the same 12-15 students on drafts of papers and oral presentations throughout the semester.

Committed to the belief that writing is a process enriched by reflection, the program requires that all writers submit an early draft to the Fellows for review. The Fellows, serving as sympathetic readers, engage students in conversations about their writing, raising questions, offering suggestions, and tendering praise.

The Goals
By participating in the Writing Fellows Program, students strive for better ways to communicate their ideas. In revising or rewriting their first draft in light of reader responses, they struggle, and most often succeed, in improving the quality of their work.

They learn what successful writers know: that writing is a process which, though ended, is never finished - and that every writer, no matter how accomplished, can write better if attention is paid to the process.

Writing Fellows Handbook
This is a handbook for current and prospective Writing Fellows, providing interviews with students, faculty, and others. The interviews provide an excellent overview of many aspects of the program and the experience of being a Writing Fellow.

Read Reflections from Previous Fellows