Writing services for all PEL students

by Anne W. Anderson

Left: Kathleen Winterberg (r) at the Phi Alpha Theta induction ceremony. Photo by Catherine Griggs

Kathleen Winterberg, an American Studies senior who plans to graduate in May, had plenty of college experience when she started taking courses at Eckerd College. She already had earned a bachelor's degree in organizational management from a college in New York. But then she moved to Florida, began working at Eckerd, and discovered that a couple of her co-workers were taking PEL classes.

When she started taking some of Professor Catherine Griggs' American Studies courses, she found the history she had hated before came alive.

"Dr. Griggs is phenomenal," she said in a phone interview. "The way she presents the material is incredible. My goal now is to tutor homeless children and to help them like history -- not to resent it, like I did."

But Winterberg found the writing a challenge. It wasn't that she didn't know how to write. For her previous degree, she had even written a 35-40 page thesis paper.


"But none of it prepared me for what I found at Eckerd," Winterberg said in a phone interview. She explained that her previous major required a different kind of writing that included lots of charts and graphs and other visuals. She felt lost when it came to integrating multiple academic articles into a research paper.

"I didn't know how to write about reading," Winterberg said.

Above: Alaina Tackitt, PEL academic advisor and director of writing services, and Craig Anderson, Tampa campus office manager and PEL academic writing coach, meet at the Tampa campus office. Photo by Kathy McDonald.

Tracy Bohannon, who also plans to graduate later this month, said she also thought she was a good writer when she came to Eckerd.

"I had written grants, had done technical writing such as writing policies and procedures manuals, and had done some creative writing," Bohannon said in a telephone interview. But, she said, the thought of submitting a writing exhibit "paralyzed me. I was really nervous."

Like Winterberg, Bohannon said she had never encountered this kind of analytic writing before. "I had never outlined anything before," Bohannon said. 

That's not unusual, according to Margret Skaftadottir, Associate Dean of Faculty for PEL, explaining that Eckerd College's approach to teaching college-level writing has always been different from most other colleges and universities.

A selection of books on writing pulled from Patti Cooksey's and Anne Anderson's office shelves.

"Instead of having students take one or maybe two freshman composition courses and then never having any more writing instruction, Eckerd has always intended that writing be an important part of every major," Skaftadottir said. "By the end of their college experience, students are expected to be proficient in several different types of writing."

Because Winterberg and Bohannon were being asked to write in ways different from what they were used to, it was not easy.

Winterberg said she had been embarrassed to ask for help. "But you can't be," she emphasized. "You have to reach out and ask." 

At Professor Griggs' suggestion, Winterberg contacted Alaina Tackitt, PEL's director of writing services, and Tackitt, whose in-process dissertation focuses on adult composition, showed her a step-by-step method that Winterberg said, "took the fear out of writing an essay."

Writing services for PEL students at every stage of writing

PEL students use Diana Hacker's style manual.

Tackitt said she and Craig Anderson, Tampa campus office manager and PEL academic writing coach, help students at all stages of writing.

"Writing support for students isn't just about helping them fix their papers after they've gotten a bad grade," Tackitt explained. "We also help students get started and think about how to organize their information."

Anderson '15, who earned his Human Development degree through PEL and who minored in Creative Writing, said many students wait until the last minute to ask for writing help, whether it is a paper for a class or a paper for the Writing Competency Exhibit.

"I usually can respond within 24 hours to a student who emails me a paper or who shares one on Google Docs," Anderson said. But, he noted, that doesn't allow the time the student needs to reflect on the comments he makes, to decide on what action to take, and to revise the paper accordingly.

"It also helps if they send us the instructions so we can be sure what they have written fulfills the assignment," Anderson added.

Bohannon said she was concerned because she didn't feel she had written an argumentative paper, one of the four required genres. But when she met with Anderson, he looked through all the papers she had written and helped her see how they could be tweaked to meet the requirements.

Bohannon attended the workshop Tackitt and Anderson offer each term, and she also met with Anderson three or four times. "He helped me develop the papers more fully, made suggestions about references and mechanics, and helped me understand the purpose of the annotations," she said.

The Tampa campus is located at 1300 Westshore Blvd.

While writing support can be provided via email, Winterberg found she needed to sit down with Tackitt and work more extensively. So she drove to the Tampa campus on Westshore Blvd. and found not just writing help but also a quiet place in which to work.

There, Tackitt showed Winterberg how to start by writing out the citations for each article she was using then writing one sentence about each article.

"It didn't even have to be a whole sentence," Winterberg explained. "But I also wrote down the page number of where I found the information so I could go back and find it again later."

After repeating this process a few times, Winterberg said Tackitt showed her how to frame the sentences and then to organize and combine them into the basis of a paper.

"I had been ready to give up," Winterberg said. "But Alaina gave me the tools I needed to go forward with my writing."

Next Writing Workshop and Writing Exhibit Due Dates

 The next writing exhibit workshop will be held Thursday, May 26, from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. on the main campus in FT210. Writing exhibit submissions are due June 20. 

Tackitt and Anderson can be contacted at 813-282-0002 or by emailing tackitad@eckerd.edu. Anne W. Anderson is PEL's director of blended and online learning.