Center for Writing and Scholarship
The Center for Writing and Scholarship supports students, faculty, and staff in their development as academic writers, scholars, and practitioners.
What We Do
The Center for Writing and Scholarship supports students, faculty, and staff in their development as academic writers, scholars, and practitioners, through in-person and online consultations, courses and community workshops, peer-review editing services, and access to resources on academic writing, research, and pedagogy.
At the Center for Writing and Scholarship, we honor integral, diverse, and creative approaches to writing and scholarship, while empowering scholars through a student-centered approach that values deep listening, process-oriented inquiry, collaboration, and thoughtful communication across complex differences.
Who We Are
The Center for Writing and Scholarship offers individual writing consultations, credit-based writing courses, a Dissertation Cafe space in Canvas, writing workshops and peer review groups, in-class workshops and guest lectures, and pedagogical support for faculty.
Along with writing support services offered to the university community, staff reviews and approves all dissertations submitted for degree conferral by CIIS students, and collaborates closely with a network of Technical Reviewers vetted by the Institute in ensuring CIIS and publication standards are met.
Current students may visit the Center for Writing and Scholarship's SharePoint site to learn more about the below core offerings.
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Writing Fellows meet one-on-one with students in single appointments, every other week, or on a weekly basis, based on the student's need and the Fellow's availability. While Fellows may not be able to provide feedback on the paper's content from an expert level within the student's specific field of study, each session is designed to give all students the feedback they need about the general readability of the writing, while providing support in the areas of structure, organization, development, and other important rhetorical aspects. A session can take place at any stage of the process, from brainstorming and prewriting to polishing a final draft or revising based on instructor feedback.
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As a part of our writing support services for the international student community, L2, and ESL students, the CWS's Editing and Publication Manager provides technical and grammatical feedback on papers and assignments at the final stages of the writing process. Distinct from the CWS's writing consultation services (which focus on synchronous one-on-one collaboration), the Peer-Review Editing Service focuses on sentence-level feedback utilizing MS Word's Track Changes function. Students also receive general feedback, encouragement, and suggestions for overall writing improvement.
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The Center for Writing and Scholarship offers a series of Academic Foundations courses that are available for enrollment to all students. These for-credit courses provide tools and strategies to assist students in exploring and refining their academic processes. Courses emphasize key areas of scholarly practice that include academic writing, composition and communication, research methodology, and pedagogy. Classes engage learners using the progressive, whole-person perspectives valued and emphasized as part of the heritage of CIIS, while emphasizing critical thinking, self-reflection, and positionality.
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The CWS workshops offer students an enriching, collaborative space to develop their awareness of a topic related to writing, scholarship, or professional development. As current students themselves, Writing Fellows have a unique view on the writing needs of the student community, and consistently strive to offer workshops that span a range of pedagogical goals, from supporting marginalized voices to offering integral and holistic approaches to the practices of reading, thinking, researching, and writing.
CWS Fellows Program
The Center for Writing and Scholarship invites applications from interested and current CIIS students annually for a competitive fellowship opportunity each spring for the following academic year. Fellows are instrumental in developing a research culture at the Institute, and in supporting students, faculty, and staff in the development of writing and scholarship at the Institute.
Additionally, this is a practice-based, professional development opportunity wherein fellows enrich their teaching and learning practice through direct work with the CIIS community in 1-1 and small group settings, in addition to the classroom training they receive.
Primary aspects of the Fellowship include:
- Service: Fellowship awardees serve the writing needs of the larger CIIS community while completing pedagogical training and receiving compensation for work as a writing tutor and instructor in multiple contexts. Fellows typically work 5-10 hours/week, while enrolling in a 3-unit pedagogy course (tuition for this course is covered by the Fellowship award).
- Personal and professional development: Over the course of the yearlong Fellowship, students explore learning theory, develop curricula for workshops offered through the Center, cultivate self-reflective facilitation skills, deepen knowledge in a chosen sub-field relevant to writing and research through self-directed study opportunities, develop a research project that may be presented at a professional conference, contribute to committee projects, and participate in the administration of the Center on campus. This training and slate of skills prepares Fellows to more successfully compete in the job market upon graduation.
- Engagement in a community of practice: At its heart, the Fellowship nurtures a community of developing writing tutors, teachers, and learners, who are actively engaged in building a collaborative space while supporting one another's personal growth and goals.
Media Inquiries
For media inquiries about the Center for Writing and Scholarship, please contact Rhonda Reliford, Chief of Staff, Office of Strategic Communication and Relations at rreliford1@ciis.edu or 415.575.3401.
