Graduate Instructors in the Writing Program have three areas of responsibility: teaching, research, and service. Success in these three areas helps you build a resume that will make you a competitive applicant to a Ph.D. program or a successful job candidate. Furthermore, positive reviews of your accomplishments in the areas of teaching, research, and service will assure you continued employment by the English Department as a graduate instructor. Regardless of what your career goals are, we train you in your roles and responsibilities as academics, assuming that you may one day want to enter a Ph.D. program.
Teaching
You will teach two classes of English 1010 (Introduction to Academic Writing) each semester of your first year. During your second year, you will teach two classes of English 2010 (Research Writing in a Persuasive Mode).
As part of your GI contract you will tutor 1 hour a week int he USU writing center and will attend a 1-hour staff meeting each month (you are excused if you're teaching or if you're attending a grad class, but you are required to read the meeting notes). In spring, GIs are invited to stay on as tutors for hourly pay.
TEACHING
Writing Center 1 hour;
Two Classes of English 1010 6 hours
Office Hours 4 hours
Preparation for Teaching 8 hours
Total 20 hours per week teaching
How your teaching will be evaluated:
1. You will be observed in at least one tutoring session in the Writing Center by the director.
2. Your students will evaluate your teaching using a University-prepared form. You will be rated on a six point scale for a wide variety of descriptors of good teaching in addition to extended written comments by students. The Writing Program also uses student comments to evaluate your teaching.
3. You will be observed several times by other G.I.s in English 6820.
4. You will write a self-assessment of your teaching for your teaching portfolio. (We'll show you how to assemble a teaching portfolio during the semester.)
5. You will observe experienced tutors and write and analysis of how your tutoring experience applies to your teaching methodology.
Because you are a graduate student, the rest of your time might be considered research.
Research
Excellent research and writing are crucial for those wishing to continue with an academic career. A good research record is also required for jobs in many different fields. Your research will be conducted in conjunction with your graduate classes. You will write many papers based on your research, all leading either to your master's thesis or to a series of papers which will demonstrate your mastery of your field.
You will share your research through the following venues: presentations in class, presentations at local and national conferences, and publication of your papers in appropriate journals. Graduate schools and two-year colleges look especially at a graduate student's record of research and publication. The best predictor of future success in academic research is a candidate's past accomplishments.
Research
English 6820 5 hours
Second Graduate Class 3 hours
Preparation for Classes 12 hours
Total 20 hours per week researching
Service
Service is an often over-looked area by graduate students. However, the types and kinds of academic service you perform are very important to future employers and graduate schools as they consider your candidacy. In our profession, to be an outstanding teacher and an excellent researcher is still not enough.
As academics, you will be expected to devote another few hours a week to service, as do all faculty members. It's just part of the job, and it makes the academic community work in a way that is unique to all other organizations which are not self-governed. Service includes your membership on committees but can include other academically-related work as well.
Employers, whether in academics or not, want employees who have demonstrated their ability to volunteer, take on extra responsibilities, and who are clearly "team players" in the sense that they are willing to work for the good of the whole organization. In the academic profession, the future success of an individual is often evaluated on the basis of past accomplishments. That is why in academics we submit a Curriculum Vitae ("my life in academic pursuits") as opposed to a two-page business resume.
To encourage your curriculum vitae development, you will have many opportunities to participate in service activities in the Writing Program and the English Department. You will serve either as a chair, co-chair, or a member of various committees. You will also have the opportunity to volunteer for special projects and participate in the larger university graduate student organizations.
What follows is a list of typical activities enjoyed by graduate instructors in the past few years. Be thinking about which committees you will take part in. Every graduate instructor and instructor is expected to participate in at least three committees-- the same expectations that are held for tenure-track faculty.
Committees for which you should volunteer depending on your interest and expertise:
• Handbook Revision Committee: revises the handbook for English 1010 each semester.
• Social Committee: organizes parties and recreation.
• Web Site Development Committee: writes, edits, and keeps up on the Writing Program Web Site.
• Special Projects Committee: these vary from year to year; last year we participated in the Diversity
Fair with a presentation on authors from different cultures and ethnicities.
• Computer Liaison Committee: accesses and evaluates the state of the G.I. computers and makes recommendations to the Department Computer Committee.
• English Department Committees: many English Department committees require that a G.I. be a member; there will be a number of openings this fall.
• Graduate Student Council as Senators: English graduate students elected to this committee represent the concerns of the graduate students in English to the University.
• Helicon West: Helicon West is an open readings/ featured readers series, with events on the second and fourth Thursday of the month, 7 PM, at True Aggie Café, 117 North Main, Logan. Graduate students are invited to read at the open mike, serve on the planning committee, and help produce community broadsides. See Star Coulbrooke for details.
• Conversation Socials: a forum with guided topics for ESL/NNS/International students to hone their English-speaking skills and become better writers in the process. Fall 2011 Socials will be held on September 14th and 28th, October 12th and 26th, November 2nd and 16th and the 30th, from 2:00-3:00 PM, in RWST 311. See Matt Winters for details about how to get involved.
The Directors of the Writing Program are ex officio members of most of these committees, but the committees are usually chaired by G.I.s and usually have two to three G.I.s as members.
How Your Work Hours Relate to Your Pay
The University considers you a half-time employee who works 20 hours per week. (Graduate students are not allowed to be employed for more than half time on campus.) Here is how we figure the 20 hours per week for which you are paid:
TEACHING
| Writing Center | 2 hours |
| Two Classes of English 1010 | 6 hours |
| Office Hours | 4 hours |
| Preparation for Teaching | 8 hours |
| Total | 20 hours per week teaching |
Because you are a graduate student, the rest of your time might be considered research.
RESEARCH
| English 6820 | 5 hours |
| Second Graduate Class | 3 hours |
| Preparation for Classes | 12 hours |
| Total | 20 hours per week researching |
SERVICE
As academics, you will be expected to devote another few hours a week to service, as do all faculty members. It's just part of the job, and it makes the academic community work in a way that is unique to all other organizations which are not self-governed. Service includes your membership on committees but can include other academically-related work as well.
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