SENSE Ed SIG: What Makes Writing Support a Success?
At this meeting, SENSE Ed will be welcoming a guest speaker: John Harbord, who is an academic writing advisor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University. From 1998 to 2015, he was director of the Center for Academic Writing at Central European University, then located in Hungary. He has worked as a consultant helping to develop writing support programmes, training staff in the disciplines on using writing in their courses, and advising university administrators and education programmes in the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Balkans, the Czech Republic, and Turkey. His research interests include educational policy relating to language use and plagiarism, and the adaptation of international models of writing support across borders.
John describes the content of his presentation as follows.
What makes writing support a success? How is it possible to establish the support students need for a university education that develops crucial written communication skills, and to persuade colleagues in the disciplines and get the administration on board? In this talk, based on my own experience in Maastricht and as a consultant and educational advisor in various countries of the former Soviet Union, I explore the paths that can lead to the institutional centrality or marginalisation of writing, and discuss what we can do and what we can’t to make student acquisition of writing skills successful.
John’s presentation will last about half an hour, after which there will be time for questions.
This meetings is open to all registered SENSE members and will take place on 5 November from 16:00-17:00. Registration will close on 5 November at 9:00, after which you will be mailed the Zoom link to the meeting. If you miss the deadline, please contact me directly for the link.
I look forward to seeing you on 5 November.
David Barick,
SENSE Ed Convener