The Appalachian College Association Culpeper project, "Communicating in the 21st Century: Writing across the Curriculum at Private Colleges of the Mountains," is based on the belief that writing and technology are integral to all disciplines. Project funds from Culpeper combined with support from other ACA-funded projects (notably Mellon) helped faculty from 14 colleges collaborate and share resources to support writing in all disciplines by using the technology students are expected to use in the 21st century.
 


Through this ACA initiative, five English professors at five ACA colleges met and began discussing WAC initiatives, especially Writing Centers. The need for a training manual for Writing Center tutors was identified, and these professors decided to write a grant proposal to develop an online tutor training manual.


Participants

Virginia Bower, 
     Mars Hill College
Charlene Kiser, 
     Milligan College
Kim McMurtry, 
     Montreat College
Ellen Millsaps, 
     Carson-Newman 
     College
Katherine Vande Brake, 
     King College

Project Goals and Objectives

1. To create fourteen tutor-training modules that can be used as a course or as guides for individual training sessions 
2. To encourage colleges which may not have a systematic plan for training tutors to adopt such a program
3. To publish these materials online so that they would be
accessible not only to ACA colleges but to others as well
4. To provide self-contained units that could be adapted to meet the needs of individual schools
5. To provide resources (handbooks, etc.) in the individual writing centers for tutor, student, and faculty use

In April 1999 we were granted $16,672 to complete this project. During conferences attended, we intentionally scheduled time outside of the conference sessions to brainstorm, to develop a preliminary plan, and to divide the workload. We then researched and drafted our modules, met for focused discussion and collaborative revision, developed the web site design, and posted the final modules on the web. We plan to continue communicating via e-mail and to meet periodically for assessment and additional revision as needed.

If you use any of these modules, please e-mail us with feedback. 

 
 

 
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© 1999, 2000, 2002 Virginia Bower (Mars Hill College), Charlene Kiser (Milligan College), Kim McMurtry (Montreat College), Ellen Millsaps (Carson-Newman College), Katherine Vande Brake (King College). All rights reserved. This manual was made possible by a Culpeper grant from the Appalachian College Association; click here for information. If you encounter difficulties with these web pages, please notify kmcmurtry@montreat.edu.