The University of Mississippi Center for Writing and Rhetoric invites teachers from community colleges and high schools to explore the writing challenges facing students as they transition to university life.

Beginning Friday (Oct. 7), writing teachers descend on the Oxford campus for the Transitioning to College Writing symposium, a two-day event aimed at generating dialogue and exploring ideas to develop the best foundation for students transitioning to college writing.

“As a flagship university, it is our role to serve as a point of contact about literacy values in our state,” said Robert Cummings, director of the center.

The symposium is also about giving voice to an important issue, said Paula Miller, a CWR instructor and regional campus writing center coordinator.

“We recognize that as teachers of writings, we have different levels of challenges,” Miller said. “But, we all still have a common interest in helping students be better writers. That why it’s important for us to have this symposium. We’re pulling together a variety of voices to ask and hopefully answer, ‘What does writing look like in our classrooms?’ and ‘What do student need to become better writers?’”

It is important to discuss this issue as more and more students attend universities, including UM, which has experienced impressive growth and this fall enrolled the state’s largest freshman class ever, Cummings said.

To prepare for this fall’s influx, CWR hired 10 new faculty and staff for its Oxford, Tupelo and Southaven campuses.

The university’s huge freshmen class is a great challenge to have, Cummings said.

“Our main focus is first-year writing, and it’s important that we have seating for every new student,” he said. “We were anticipating this large class and we’re happy to have these people on board to help us address students’ needs so they can be successful in the disciplines they’ve chosen.”

While the university’s Writing Center is relatively new, its purpose is not.

“The Center for Writing and Rhetoric was established in 2009 to unify the university’s commitment to writing instruction, especially for first-year students,” Cummings said. “As such, we oversee tutoring and support for student writers, as well as professional development and training for all teachers.”

What’s more, CWR promotes writing across the curriculum and disciplines by working with individual faculty, colleges, departments, programs and the writing centers at Ole Miss campuses in Southaven and Tupelo.

“It’s just really exciting to see the university support the need to focus on writing,” Miller said. “We are making a solid investment in helping students achieve the writing skills they need for their careers. Each brings certain strength and it’s exciting to see this come together.”

To learn more about the Transitioning to College Writing symposium, visit http://cwr.olemiss.edu/Transitioning/. To register for the symposium, call 662-915-2121.

For more information, visit UM’s Center for Writing and Rhetoric.

The University of Mississippi’s Center for Writing and Rhetoric will host a symposium for writing teachers on Friday, October 7 and Saturday, October 8 at the Yerby Conference Center. The title of the event is Transititioning to College Writing and will focus on subjects such as how writing is taught in high school and college settings, and how writing experiences influence students.

“Our purpose is to create a space where literacy educators at the high school, community college and college level in Mississippi can gather to discuss how we can better address the transition of student writers from high school to college,” explained Robert Cummings, Director of the Center for Writing & Rhetoric.

Speakers for the event include Dr. Richard Selfe, Director of the Center for the Student and Teaching of Writing at Ohio State University, and Dr. Lilian Brannon, Professor of English and Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.  Learn more about the speakers by viewing the website.

Dr. Robert Cummings

A University of Mississippi English professor will receive one of the Modern Language Association of America’s most prestigious honors at its national convention next month.

Robert E. Cummings has been awarded MLA’s Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize for his book “Lazy Virtues: Teaching Writing in the Age of Wikipedia” (Vanderbilt University Press, 2009). The prize is given for an outstanding work in the fields of language, culture, literacy or literature with strong application to the teaching of English.

“To know that the prize committee of the MLA not only read the book, but found it worthy of this award, is truly humbling,” said Cummings, director of UM’s Center for Writing and Rhetoric. “I hope that this acknowledgment will bring more attention to the work we need to do to incorporate electronic environments into the college writing classroom.”
Cummings is among 17 honorees to be recognized Jan. 7 during the MLA annual meeting in Los Angeles.

The selection committee’s citation for the winning book reads: “With ‘Lazy Virtues’ … Robert Cummings ventures critically, open-mindedly and thoughtfully into a new frontier. (He) provides a sophisticated and original grounding of Commons-Based Peer Production in economic theory, rhetoric and information technology before offering it as a practice and model for writing classrooms.” [Read more...]

The University Writing Center is changing for the better with the help of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).  The QEP is a five-year program designed to transform the teaching of writing at the University of Mississippi. [Read more...]

The University of Mississippi Writing Center has joined the Oxford-Lafayette County Public Library to help improve writing skills throughout the community.

UM volunteer writing consultants (l to r) Amber Lowe, Brannon Miller, Camille Lesseig, Cody LeBlanc and Joshua Hamer

The Community Writing Center, housed in the conference room of the public library at 401 Bramlett Blvd., is staffed 10 hours per week by UM Writing Center student tutors. Tutors are available from 5 to 7 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 3 to 5 p.m. Sundays.

“Our purpose is to assist community members with writing,” said Brenda Robertson, University Writing Center director. “It is a service project developed by our center and the Oxford Public Library, with the support of Hildreth Davis, Americorps VISTA in the College of Liberal Arts.”

Members of the Writing Center staff have volunteered to work with public library patrons to improve general writing skills, to address specific questions about documents and to record personal stories in the One Book, One Community project.

[Read more...]