As part of a panel at the 2013 Conference on College Composition and Communication, English Lecturer and College Writing Coordinator Paula Patch described ways writing faculty and academic advisors in the Elon Athletics program share the responsibility for teaching and supporting the writing of student-athletes.
The presentation, titled “Better Together: Opportunities for Including Athletic Academic Advisors as Partners in the Teaching and Learning of Writing,” was part of the panel Going Public through Partnership: Basic Writing as a Nexus for Transfer, Advocacy, and Activism at the 64th annual Conference on College Composition and Communication held March 13-16, 2013, in Las Vegas.
Patch explained how she has built on departmental and institutional conversations, including those surrounding Elon’s Quality Enhancement Plan, the Writing Excellence Initiative, to implement formal structures that to provide effective writing instruction to student-athletes in first-year writing courses and to develop the writing expertise of the academic advisors who work with those students outside of class. These structures include involving the athletics academic advisors in curriculum design and inviting the advisors to participate in writing-related professional development activities that allow them to effectively assist students outside of class.