On Wednesday, May 29, Heather Barton, Amber Jensen and Jenny Goransson hosted a Digital Roundtable called “Workshop for Directors: Writing an Article for JPTSS.” The session was the beginning of a series of Digital Roundtables designed to support Secondary School Writing Center Directors as they navigate supporting their students or beginning their own journey of publication within the journal.
We spent time reviewing the JPTSS website and what information is available to those interested in publishing an article within the journal. The items we explored included the following:
- Understanding the different types of articles published in the journal
- Finding “mentor texts” for each of the types of articles
- Determining gaps that exist within the SSWC field
In addition, time was spent sharing with participants how to access the rubric and helpful video tutorials that writers can use during the writing process.
Open Discussion Towards Writing for the Journal
As we moved away from an overview of the tools available to writers, we shifted our focus on developing a plan to write / support student writers. Most of the discussion centered on our guiding question: What challenges have come up (or which challenges do you anticipate) as you mentor students through the writing/publication process? The following notes were generated from our conversation:
Supporting student writers:
- Timing can feel daunting for students; often articles go through several rounds of revision and students often feel overwhelmed with the length of the process.
- New center or new tutors – students may not feel they have much to say until spring semester → suggestions: try writing an article alongside your students, and also clarify the timeline for them (more like a two-year project than a one-year)
- Students who are new to this kind of writing can sometimes make overly lofty claims, or jump too quickly to solutions rather than clearly defining the problem. Who else has said things about this topic?
- Students want a lot of certainty about what is expected, what is “right” – suggestion: do genre analysis using the sample articles – helpful in terms of questions of structure, style, etc. You could also have them read the journal for topic ideas, etc.
- Idea: use the journal articles as part of tutor training or the tutoring class – We are part of a larger scholarly/practitioner conversation
- If there is no tutoring course, this idea of getting students to write an article feels daunting – it will likely only be a small handful of students who are self-directed/motivated enough to do it, and that’s okay! You might also consider starting with Voices from the Center
Writing as researchers / practitioners
- Directors often have many ideas but need support in taking the ideas from brainstorming to a focus on a specific element.
- Consider drafting the work created via doctoral research and/or presentations at conferences into an article.
Next Steps
Join us for one or more of our “Writing Together” summer sessions (free to anyone who wants to attend)
- Wednesday, June 12, 5-7 pm ET (Jenny hosting)
- Tuesday, June 25, 12-2 pm ET (Rebecca hosting)
- Tuesday, July 9, 12-2 pm ET (Heather hosting)
- Thursday, July 25, 12-2 pm ET (Jenny hosting)
- Thursday, August 8, 2-4 pm ET (Amber hosting)
- Week of Aug 19-23, date and time TBD (Amber hosting)