For Faculty
Faculty Writing Retreats
Allen Island Faculty Writing Retreat: June 20-22, 2022
Application DUE DATE: May 20, 2022 by 12:00pm
Welcome! Thank you for your interest participating in the Faculty Writing Retreat on Colby’s beautiful Allen Island campus. This retreat is a 3-day, two-night experience that will enable you to focus on your own research and writing, jump-start (or finish) a project, gain support from other faculty writers, and help make your summer a productive one.
In addition, this retreat will include two workshops and the option consult individually with professional editor, Kelly Clancy, from Epilogue Editing.
Please click here for a .pdf with full workshop descriptions and consultation details.
Click here to complete the short Writing Retreat Application
Like all summer programs on Allen island, the Faculty Writing Retreat is a cooperative, “leave no trace” program, which asks that all participants contribute to trip logistics (cooking and basic cleanup) and leave the island facilities as clean and intact as we found them. Island facilities include Wi-fi, a large classroom and many quiet work spaces, beautiful Bunk House with kitchen, and buildings with a mix of private and shared bedroom configurations.
Questions?: Email Stacey Sheriff, Writing Department Chair ([email protected])
Writing Pedagogy Resources
Assignment Design: “Designing Essay Assignments”– A short, useful .pdf overview with tips from Harvard University
Source Attribution and Plagiarism:
- Indiana University’s How to Recognize Plagiarism: Tutorials and Tests site is one of the most thorough and current. The tutorials are great preparation for their “certification test,” both of which you could assign to students.
- Cornell’s “Recognizing and Avoiding Plagiarism” site has a good, short self-quiz with answers that explain why a source should be cited (or not). You could assign this quiz and discuss any confusing questions in class.
- “Warning: When You Must Cite” is a useful list of 8 examples when a student must cite source material (Yale).
- The Plagiarism Tutorial has concise definitions of plagiarism and citation; 3 pages that explain and illustrate acceptable and unacceptable paraphrasing of research; and quizzes for students (U of Southern MI Libraries).
- Common knowledge, which does not need to be cited, is more difficult to define in the digital age.
- Direct, mosaic, and unintentional plagiarism definitions from the CBB Plagiarism Resource Site.
- Don’t forget The Colby Libraries’ “Avoiding Plagiarism: Academic Honesty” lib guide.
Grammar & Style: Diana Hacker’s Pocket Style Manual (6e) website is a treasure-trove of grammar, citation, and research exercises and self-quizzes. There’s also a collection of model papers (and outlines) by documentation style, including MLA, APA, Chicago, CSE and more.
Editing: Richard A. Lanham’s “paramedic method” is a great teaching and revision tool. The method includes 7 steps for “diagnosing” convoluted writing that will help students craft more direct and concise sentences. (See Revising Prose 5th ed. for full explanation.)
Responding to Student Writing: “Responding to Student Writing” – a useful 2-page guide (Harvard University).
Working with Multilingual Students:
- “Valuing Written Accents: Non-native Students Talk about Identity, Academic Writing, and Meeting Teachers’ Expectations” – excellent, short case studies and detailed examples of diverse international students’ writing and challenges adjusting to US academic writing styles.
- Common English mistakes made by native Chinese speakers – a succinct description of common English errors native Chinese speakers make plus some of the reasons why these mistakes occur.
- “Tips for Writing in North American Colleges” (print version)- a nice overview with examples from Purdue’s famous Online Writing Lab (OWL) that could be especially helpful to international students. Click here for the segmented version meant to be read on screen.
- Annotated bibliography of articles and resources on ESL/multilingual/ second language writing pedagogy. (Ask Stacey for copies of any of these!)