Each year, 25-30 honors undergraduates tutor as Honors Writing Fellows. The Fellows assist with courses in a variety of fields, enabling faculty to emphasize writing as a way to learn. The program improves student writing and learning, while enabling faculty to accomplish more with their courses. It also benefits the Fellows themselves, who love the training, the teaching, the ways this work helps to improve their own writing and opens up professional opportunities to them. This innovative program is a joint initiative of Honors at Iowa and the Department of Rhetoric. It has helped more than five thousand undergraduates with major writing exercises in courses in 25 departments.
How it Works:
To apply to be an Honors Writing Fellow, complete the Honors Writing Fellows Application. Applications for the 2022 Fellows program are due Friday, March 25 by 4:00 PM. An informational session will be held on Friday, February 25th in the Writing Center, 110 EPB, from 4:00-5:00 PM.
- Selected Fellows enroll in HONR:3220 Honors Writing Fellows: Writing Theory & Practice to learn how to be an effective peer tutor.
- Each semester, Honors Writing Fellows are paired with a course. Fellows serve 5-10 students in their chosen courses.
- Fellows read an essay written by their students, write marginal comments and one-page letters of comments, and lead 30 minute individual conferences with each student. Fellows do this twice over the course of the semester.
- First-semester Fellows receive $700 each semester in their first year of fellowing. In their second and third years of fellowing, they receive $800 per semester.
How to Earn Honors Credit:
Fellows earn credit for University Honors as follows:
- 3 honors experiential coursework credits for HONR:3220 Honors Writing Fellows: Writing Theory & Practice
- 2 experiential learning credits per semester serving as a Writing Fellow
Fellows can receive a maximum of 9 s.h. of experiential learning credit, 3 hours from HONR:3220 followed by up to 6 hours from serving as a writing fellow.