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Graduate Writing Place GA & Writing Fellows

Information & Application

In the 2024-2025 Academic Year, the Graduate Writing Place will offer two types of opportunities for advanced PhD candidates who wish to augment their writing, leadership, and teaching skills at the same time they improve the writing skills of other graduate students at Northwestern:

  • Ten nine-month (September-May) Graduate Writing Fellowships (~5 hours/week)
  • One twelve-month (June-May) Graduate Assistantship (15-20 hours/week)

Both Graduate Writing Fellows and the GA will work one-on-one with graduate students from across the university to respond to their writing in progress and to coach them in principles of expression, argumentation, and organization. Moreover, the Fellows and GA will draw on their own disciplinary expertise and interests to help develop workshops, events, and resources that cater to both broad and specific graduate student audiences.

Benefits:
The benefits of being a Graduate Writing Fellow and serving as a GA in the Graduate Writing Place are numerous. Through participation in the program, you will:

  1. Become comfortable and facile with mentoring and teaching graduate students.
  2. Learn to teach and work with student writers who come from a variety of backgrounds and possess a range of skills and interests.
  3. Develop skills to improve your teaching of writing in the courses you already teach and assist.
  4. Advance your own writing skills through exposure to and experience with the work of others.
  5. Develop leadership and presentation skills through planning and leading workshops.
  6. Be identified as a skilled writer by your peers, mentors, and potential employers. 

Eligibility:
PhD students from any department/school may apply to be a Graduate Writing Fellow and/or the Graduate Writing Place GA provided that you:

  • Will have achieved PhD Candidacy before Fall 2024
  • Will not be beyond your seventh year in your program during the 2024-2025 academic year
  • Have experience writing for peer reviewed conferences and/or journals
  • Can commit to attending the required summer training session (dates TBA)

Graduate Writing Fellow Responsibilities:

  • Participate in summer training
  • Hold one-on-one writing consultations and/or facilitate an interdisciplinary writing group (for a combined total of 4 hours/week during the academic year)
  • Help plan and co-facilitate one cross-disciplinary writing workshop (the workshop will be held twice during the academic year)
  • Develop discipline-specific writing programming and resources for graduate students in your department and (if relevant) other closely-related fields
  • Attend monthly meetings to discuss program initiatives and tutoring practices, and to get feedback on workshops and other resources in development

For these services, Graduate Writing Fellows earn $3,000 supplements to their annual stipends (disbursed monthly, September-May).

Graduate Writing Place GA Responsibilities:

  • Participate in summer training
  • Hold one-on-one writing consultations and/or facilitate one or more interdisciplinary writing groups (~10 hours/week)
  • Help Fellows plan and facilitate cross-disciplinary writing workshops
  • Assist the Writing Place Assistant Director in promoting Graduate Writing Place services at fairs and in departments throughout the school year and during the summer months
  • Assist the Writing Place Assistant Director with administrative tasks (e.g., scheduling, developing advertisements)
  • Attend monthly meetings to discuss program initiatives and tutoring practices, and to get feedback on workshops and other resources in development

For these services, the GA will earn a 12-month stipend (beginning June 2024 and ending May 2025). Preference will be given to GA candidates who have experience with Graduate Writing Place services (especially those who have served as Fellows or participated in interdisciplinary writing groups).

We are currently accepting applications for the Graduate Writing Place GAship and/or to serve as a Graduate Writing Fellow. If you are interested in applying to serve as a Fellow only, please apply at this link. If you are interested in applying for the GAship, access the application here.

Applications for both the GAship and the Graduate Writing Fellowship are due April 3, 2024.

If you have any questions, please contact Elizabeth Lenaghan at e-lenaghan@northwestern.edu