The Maryland School of Public Policy

THE MARYLAND SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY

WRITING COACH PROGRAM

Background

Theprogram was established in 2010 because many faculty members were frustrated with the quality of students’ writing. According toExecutive Dean Powers, the School needed “to get rid of spaghetti writing.” As a result, the School adopted a comprehensive set of writing guidelines, outlining expectations for student compositionsand created the writing coaching program using a “train the trainers” approach. Coaches are second year students with high GPAs and strong writing skills. Each coach works with a group of roughly thirty students, helping themshift from writing lengthy academic papers to writing concise, professional documents meant for the work place.

Writing Guidelines

The first task was to develop writing guidelines applicable to the School of Public Policy.The draft guidelines went through multiple reviews before receiving faculty approval. (See AppemdixOne.)

Writing Skills Scorecard

Critical to theprogram is a writing skills scorecard which is used for assessing keyelements of writing. The categories for evaluation are:

• Responsiveness to audience
• Responsiveness to assignment
• Tone
• Thesis
• Flow/organization
• Paragraph and sentence structure
• Format
• Conciseness
• Documentation/factual accuracy
• Grammar

Each categoryis rated on a scale of one to five, with five being best. The scorecard is a tool for students to self-evaluate their writing,for coaches to evaluate student writing and to facilitate communication about ways to improve. During the 2012-13 academic year, coaches proposed separating the scorecard into two stages, focusing initially only on the first five categories and then for a second review dealing with the last five. This is an option for students choosing to work closely with their coaches. (See Appendix Two)

For the 2013-14 academic year, each incoming student will be asked to do a generic self-evaluation using all ten categories, which coaches can access when reviewing student’s work. The self-evaluation is in a dedicated space on Canvas and cannot be accessed by others.

Time Line

The schedule for the writing program each year is:

• The selection of coaches – summer
• Coaches’ training – just before orientation
• Orientation presentation to incoming students and introduction of coaches
• Coaching of students – throughout the academic year through scheduled one-on- one sessions, drop-in office hours and brown bag discussion sessions.

New in 2013-14 will be an effort to develop a voluntary writing certification program, through which students can complete one or more examinations and become certified through the School as an able writer. This certification could then be included on students’ resumes.

Coach Selection Process

Coaches are selected from the second year Graduate Assistant pool. Applicants submit a resume, cover letter, and two writing samples. The Program Directors, Vicki Lathom and Jacqueline Rogers, review the submissions and then interviewthe most promising applicants for employment as 10 hour Graduate Assistants.

Coach Training and Monthly Meetings

New coaches attend a two-day, intensive training session before the start of the fall semester. Prior to the training, coaches read the Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors by Leigh Ryan and Liza Zimmerelli, review the School’s writing guidelines and scorecard, test grammar skills through online quizzes, and compose documents on assigned topics to practicecoaching during the training session. (See Appendix Three.) Coaches are taught to provide constructive feedback, but they do not edit student papers, except to illustrate a recurrent problem which the student has.

After the training, coaches meet monthly with the Program Directors to review experiences and discuss any problems. The topics usually include discussion of specific difficult coaching situations, suggestions for solutions, faculty feedback, comparisons of coaching sessions and brain-storming about ways to increase faculty and student engagement.

Orientation Presentation

Incoming students attend an orientationsessionwhich includesa presentation by the Program Directors andintroduces students to their coaches.

The core of the orientation is a PowerPoint presentation with information about the writing guidelines and the scorecard. The presentation highlights the importance of conciseness and includes a few tips on this subject, as well as common grammar and punctuation errors. Finally, students get together in groups with their coaches to learn how to best take advantage of the coaching help and complete their generic self-evaluations. The 2013 Orientation PowerPoint Presentation is in Appendix Four.

How Coaches Assist Students

Students can receive assistance from their coaches in four ways: pre-arranged meetings, electronic coaching, walk-in office hours, and lunchtime topic-specific sessions.

Pre-Arranged Meetings. In order to get the most out of eachmeeting, students are askedto send copies of their draftsto coaches in advance accompanied by the assignment from the professor This allows the coaches to read the student’s writing and be better prepared to provide assistanceefficiently.

Although email isconvenient,face to face meetings provide more in-depth coaching than possible with electroniccorrespondence. For this reason, prearranged meetings are preferable forhelping studentswith concerns abouta specific assignment or who require special assistance. If this is not possible, video callingservices, such as Skype and Facetime,allow a virtual substitute.

Electronic Coaching. Electronic coaching has become popular with students. A student simply sends his/her coach an email, which attachesadraft paper, the assignment prompt from the professor, a list of areas of concern, and a scorecard self-evaluation.Coaches then use the Track Changes function in Microsoft Word to provide feedback.

The draft with the coach’s comments is sent back to the student and if the student desires, he/she can send a second draftback, noting any new points of concern. This back-and-forth continues until the student is satisfied with the product. For many students the convenience of this approach is invaluable.

Office Hours.Coaches hold two drop-in office hours every week. Experience shows that the drop-in hours are best scheduled around lunchtime and early afternoon from Monday through Thursday. Bottlenecks occur occasionally, because the number of students arriving at the same time can be unpredictable and coaches must read drafts on the spot for the first time. However, office hours still provide a flexible way to provide writing assistance promptly.

Lunch-time Seminars. In pairs, coaches schedule eventsopen to all MSPP studentswhich focus on a special aspect of writing. Open discussion follows an initial presentation. During the fall semester, topics usually deal with the difference between academic writing and writing for busy people or a stage of writing: pre-writing, drafting and revision. In the spring, seminars are scheduled only before spring break and address more specialized topics. Students may propose topics to their coaches, which will be considered during themonthly meetings.

Faculty Outreach

In order to strengthen the program, coachesengagefaculty membersto discuss the program, ascertain their writing priorities and request referrals, if a student is performing at the low B level. This allows coaches to tailor their assistance to the preferences of professors. Faculty priorities are available to the coaches and for the Executive Dean’s review via Canvas, but not to students.

When a professor thinks that a student would benefit from coaching, he or shecan refer the student to the School’s Academic Advisor, Kenneth Durril, who then links the student with his or her assigned coach. The student’s coach is also informed;however, it is the student’s responsibility to pursue the lead. Faculty outreach has helped increase acceptance of the coaching program since, as is the case with many new endeavors, some initial response has been skeptical. In 2013-14, faculty and student perspectives will be sought with regard to the potential voluntary writing certification.

Lessons Learned

Much learning comes from being on the job. Beloware some lessons learned from the 2012-13 coaches.

Be flexible. Coaches need to use a variety of methods in dealing with students. For some students, phone calls to discuss comments are helpful, while others need face to face interaction. As one coach put it, “I have no set formula for helping the students; they know best how I can help and guide them. I let them lead the way and I try to be as constructive as possible.”

Ask questions. Some students havedifficulty analyzing the subject or thinking through an issue. In this case, coaches have found it is most helpful simply toask questions, getting studentsto probe deeper into the issue, think critically and tap into new ideas. A writing coach need not be an expert on the subject of the student’s paper, but can stimulate the writing process or encourage a richer final product.

Break up the feedback. In some cases, the scorecard evaluation can be overwhelming. Having more than one session about a paper can work, with initial focus on the first five scorecard criteria a second session devoted to the last five.

Schedule Events at Beginning of Semester. It is important to schedule eventsas early as possible in the semester. Seminars, in particular, should be scheduled well in advance to reserve a room,asthe lunchtime slot on Mondays through Thursdays is busy. Holding seminars earlier in the semester nets a larger attendance, since students tend to be overwhelmed in the timeleading up to finals.

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