Julia Herman, Writing Center consultant and public health studies major, presents writing center research at national conference
Writing Center consultant Julia Herman ’24 recently presented the results of her research study on the impact of the Center for Writing Excellence’s Disciplinary Writing Consultants Program at the National Conference of Peer Tutors in Writing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Herman, a public health studies major with minors in business administration and professional writing studies, has spent two semesters analyzing surveys from students in courses with assigned Disciplinary Writing Consultants (DWCs). The DWC program, which has been running since 2015, assigns trained Writing Center consultants to individual courses; the consultants work with the faculty and provide tailored writing support throughout the semester to students in the course. The DWC Program is led by Paula Rosinski, director of Writing Across the University, and Julia Bleakney, director of The Writing Center.
Working alongside Bleakney, her research mentor, Herman has been exploring how and in what ways students benefit from having disciplinary writing consultants in their courses. Drawing on her analysis of student surveys as well as her own experience as a Disciplinary Writing Consultant in PHS2020, Public Health Studies Research Methods with Assistant Professor Yanica Faustin, Herman reflected in her presentation on the importance of the relationship between the consultant and the faculty for the success of the program.
Herman is working with Bleakney to turn the conference presentation into an article, which will be submitted to a writing center journal for consideration by the end of 2023.