Lisa Ganobcsik-Williams co-ordinates the Centre for Academic Writing, Coventry University. Formerly Co-ordinator of Academic Writing for the Warwick Writing Programme, Lisa has taught writing in a variety of disciplines. She has also taught and tutored writing in US universities and has had input into the Royal Literary Fund Fellowship Scheme for writing tuition in UK universities. Lisa has published in Rhetorica, The Writing Center Journal, and Computers in Composition. Her publications also include an edited book, Teaching Academic Writing in UK Higher Education: Theories, Practices and Models (Palgrave Macmillan 2006), and A Report on the Teaching of Academic Writing in UK Higher Education (2004). Lisa serves on the boards of the European Writing Centers Association (EWCA) and the European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing (EATAW), and is an ex-Officio board member of the International Writing Centers Association (IWCA). In 2005 she was nominated for a National Teaching Fellowship.
'The Role of Writing Development Work in the University’
In this presentation Sally Mitchell and Lisa Ganobcsik-Williams will collaboratively explore the topic of writing development for students and staff in Higher Education. In the UK and many other countries around the world, Academic Writing is becoming established as a new and vibrant area for pedagogy and research. Mitchell and Ganobcsik-Williams will discuss government and policy issues to which writing developers must respond as well as issues that arise as a result of introducing and implementing writing development in universities. The speakers will share the insights they have gained through practice and research on writing development as a transformative agent at both local and institutional levels. Focusing on Writing in the Disciplines (WID) as an institutional strategy, the speakers will outline recent research in which they have been involved on evaluating WID approaches and will explore research on other types of writing support.
A key issue under discussion will be how institutions adjust to the expanded numbers and diverse needs of 21st century students, and how they equip them to graduate with the high level literacy skills expected of them by academic departments and employers. Ganobcsik-Williams will review research she has conducted on this topic and will present on a current evaluation of writing pedagogy in which her Centre is involved. Mitchell will draw on recent consultations across her institution, which highlighted common concerns (for example with reading, use of the internet, the examination regime pre-university) and a diversity of strategies around teaching, course design, assessment and the use of ‘writing support’. She will consider the implications of what she found for developing effective local practices and coherent institutional approaches, focussing on the roles of disciplinary and writing specialists and ways in which they can work together.
Presentation: Sally Mitchell & Lisa Ganobcsik - Williams - iPED2008