WRITE Fellows Program

The Ott Memorial Writing Center is a hub of research activity, for faculty and students alike. As part of our commitment to supporting undergraduate research, we launched the Writing and Research Integrative Tutor Experience (WRITE) Program. Funded by a Mellon grant, the WRITE Program invites five undergraduate tutors each semester to participate in a collaborative qualitative research project in close collaboration with the Ott Director.

Program rationale

Marquette students (perhaps particularly those in the humanities) readily see themselves as people who volunteer and provide service to others—but they often can’t quite imagine themselves in the role of lead researchers. Students in the sciences and social sciences can often find an onramp to research through the opportunities afforded by an established lab or larger research study, but these occasions are much rarer in the humanities. Our work during the Fall 2016 semester demonstrates how the WRITE Program can operate as a very small research lab, engaging students in collective inquiry into an overarching subject that is of importance to the larger community of teachers and scholars, both at Marquette and beyond. Our goal is to conduct a full research study in 15 weeks (collecting and analyzing data) and to set the groundwork to share our findings (through conference presentations and / or an article to be submitted to a scholarly journal).

WRITE Research Projects

The Fall 2016 team of WRITE Fellows developed a research project on “transfer talk” in the writing center that will be presented at a major conference (the Conference on College Composition and Communication) in the spring and written up for submission to a prominent journal (Writing Center Journal).

The inaugural cohort of WRITE Fellows for Fall 2017: Aishah M., Mady Y., Katherine S., Matt T., Saul L.

How to become a WRITE Fellow:

  • Be selected to join the staff of the Ott Memorial Writing Center.
  • Express interest in becoming a WRITE Fellow when asked for appointment preferences before the new semester begins.