PEL authors celebrated; Writing instructors, tutors, and staff recognized

article and images by Anne W. Anderson

About 45 PEL people -- alumni, current and former writing instructors, former writing tutors, staff, and friends -- gathered in Cobb Gallery on Saturday evening, January 14, to recognize the impact the writing studies programs have had in the lives of alumni of all disciplines.

Twelve PEL alumni brought or sent published work to display, and other work from the PEL bookshelves also was displayed. Work ranged from scholarly work in the fields of neuroscience, business, and history to inspirational writing, memoir, fiction, and poetry.

SCROLL TO END TO SEE SLIDE SHOW

PEL Associate Dean of Faculty Margret Skaftadottir (P '20)

Writing instructors, tutors, staff recognized

PEL Executive Director Amanda Hagood welcomed the group, then introduced PEL Associate Dean of Faculty Margret Skaftadottir who recognized the work of PEL's writing instructors (all forms) through the years as contributing to students' successes as writers in all fields.

Skaftadottir then recognized PEL's writing tutors over the years, noting that some tutors also had become instructors in the program.

Some of PEL's writing tutors, instructors, friends

"In some ways, the tutors had the harder task," Skaftadottir said. "They were taking sometimes very raw writing and were faced with what to address first. Without the tutors, many of our students would have had a more difficult time succeeding in PEL."

Skaftadottir also recognized staff members who had served the writing program in different capacities: Patti Cooksey '97, currently PEL's director of general education courses, once oversaw the writing tutor program; Alaina Tackitt '08, currently PEL's director of writing services, who also teaches composition courses in PEL; and Craig Anderson '15, formerly PEL's academic writing coach, who now works as the learning and performance facilitator for Coca-Cola.

Angela Masterson Jones '12 (P '14)

Readings

Following a short time of mingling and enjoying the food, displays, and artwork, Hagood introduced Angela Masterson Jones '12 (Creative Writing), Eckerd College's associate director of communications and the College editor. 

Jones, a four-time alumna of the Writers in Paradise conference at Eckerd and a published poet and fiction writer, read two poems in progress, "Yard Sale" and "Dreaming Under Influence (DUI)."






Jones then introduced each of the other readers, who collectively represented a range of disciplines:

Ellen Nizzi '11

• Ellen Nizzi '11 (Creative Writing) read from her lively memoir in progress "Continuing Education."
• Matt DiPalma '17 (Humanities/History) read from his 2016 book German Military Papers of the Second World War. 
• Monica Geers Dahl '98 (Human Development/Gender Studies), Ph.D., read from her  chapter, "PTSD Symptom Reduction with Neurofeedback," which appeared in the 2015 book Restoring the Brain: Neurofeedback as an Integrative Approach to Health.
•  Anne W. Anderson  '07 (Creative Writing) read from her 2009 children's story "Just Kidding," which was published in Pockets magazine.
• Dovév Weaver, Sr. '16 (Humanities/American Studies) read from his 2016 book Chasing Your Dream: Bound for Success.
• Heidi Tilney Kramer '08 (Humanities/American Studies) read from her 2016 book Media Monsters.
• Anne Visser Ney '07 (Creative Writing) read from an essay-in-progress titled "Knives and Other Terrible Things That Float." 
• Cristina Querrer '07 (Creative Writing/Visual Arts) read from her book of poetry, The Art of Exporting, and from her novel-in-progress, The Butterfly Catcher. 

Other PEL authors who attended or who sent work to be displayed included Craig Anderson '15 (Human Development/Creative Writing), Cal Brown '16 (Visual Arts), Annie Newman Behr Ennis '88 (Marketing), Ed Mahon '86 (Management Information Systems), and Ricky Roberts III '13 (Human Development). 

Rememberings and reflections

Attendees wrote responses to Wording Wall prompts, which were posted near the buffet area, and these written responses are included in the slide presentation below. Other thoughts were shared toward the end of the evening when the floor was opened for comments and reflections about the writing program and about the PEL experience.

Linda Johnson, Sarasota center director for many years, was recognized by PEL alumni Debra Piner and others who had been students at the center.

Several people spoke about how their PEL experience had changed their lives or pointed them in a new direction.

Cheryl Keyes '99 (Personnel Management Concentration in Organizational Studies), currently working in the Human Resources department of Pinellas County Schools, noted that the effects of the PEL writing program extend far beyond the arena of published work and into myriad everyday writing tasks.

"My colleagues at work have noticed and commented on the quality of my writing," Keyes said. "Even when I just send emails, I sometimes hear, 'You write so well!'"

PEL Director of Writing Services Alaina Tackitt agreed and told of an experience she had had.

“I was at an event at the Mahaffey recently with a couple of friends, who happened to be PEL graduates," Tackitt said. "One had brought her new partner, who, it turned out, also was a PEL grad. As I often do, I happened to be wearing my Eckerd College cap, and two people sitting in front of us noticed my hat, and said, ‘Oh, we're PEL grads!’

PEL Director of Writing Services Alaina Tackitt '08

“I said, ‘I’m a PEL grad, too, and so are my friends.’

“Several rows down, two more people heard us, turned around, and said, ‘We’re PEL grads, too!’

“Others around the auditorium began waving and saying, ‘PEL grad!’ ‘PEL grad!’

“Then, two people up front, who were with the League of Women voters, stood up and identified themselves as PEL grads, too."

“This program has changed the face of the Greater Tampa Bay Area," Tackitt said. "We're the reason people locally know Eckerd College, and Eckerd College PEL people have become involved in local affairs at every level.

“We used to joke that PEL was like a cult," Tackitt said," and I guess the moral of the story is that you can close the program, but you can’t kill the cult.”

At the close of the evening, attendees adjourned to Miller Auditorium to hear poet Richard Blanco, keynote speaker for the 2017 Writers in Paradise Conference.

Anne W. Anderson is PEL's director of blended and online learning 

and is co-editor of The PEL Connector.

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.