New writing center director appointed

Kerry Walk jokes that her new favorite color is orange. Walk, assistant director of the writing program at Harvard University, will be surrounded by it when she takes her new post as director of Princeton's writing program next fall.

Beginning next semester, freshmen — and sophomores who have not yet completed the writing requirement — will be required to take one course through the new writing program, which Walk will head, to fulfill the writing requirement. Unlike courses currently labeled with "W," the new seminars will focus more on writing techniques than on the material the students are writing about.

The new writing requirement is an "effort to prepare students for the writing they're going to have to do in other courses and also later on," Walk explained.

Walk earned her Ph.D. in English literature from the University of California-Berk-eley, where she taught a writing course.

"They seemed to appreciate the teaching," Walk remembered. After that class, Walk became the coordinator of Berkeley's writing program.

"That was a really exciting experience for me," she said. "I realized that when you work with teachers, you can affect even more students."

Walk now works as the assistant director of the Harvard Writing Project, helping faculty and graduate students to assign and respond to student writing more effectively. Walk also teaches in Harvard's Expository Writing Program, where she helps colleagues develop their courses and improve their syllabi.

She recently wrote her first book — "Commenting and Grading: A Guide for College Teachers" — which will be published later this year. She said the book is designed to help writing teachers implement their assignments effectively, including tips on how to grade more consistently and objectively.

"As teachers, we have to remember our students are reading what we write to them, and we really need to keep our students in mind when we're writing," Walk said.

"She has precisely the portfolio of responsibilities and experience that this position demands," said David Thurn, interim director of the Princeton Writing Program.

Associate Dean of the College Howard Dobin said the Harvard program is fairly similar to the program being implemented at Princeton.

"Dr. Walk had substantial experience in a very successful program and could help us get off to a good start here," he said. "The key similarity [is that] all freshmen are asked to take a writing course in a small seminar that is topic specific."

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Dobin was involved in the process of finding a director, which began in February, he said. Applications were sent out to interested parties across the country. "We had a short list of candidates who we interviewed," he said. "It really drew a wide variety of people who were interested." The University offered the job to walk in late March.

"[Walk] has a lot of experience working with faculty . . . offering assistance in teaching writing effectively," Dobin noted.

Walk's responsibilities, beginning July 1, will include supervising course syllabi, hiring seminar teachers and helping the instructors teach as best as they can, Walk said.

The program, she said, will be taught by about 15 Ph.D. lecturers and some graduate students far into their studies. The 30 to 40 seminars will each have specific topics and texts. Already University faculty and administrators have begun submitting course proposals.

Though many details of the writing program have not yet been finalized, Walk explained her vision for the program. Beginning this fall, incoming freshman classes will be divided in half arbitrarily, one half taking a writing course in the fall and the other in the spring. Students will be assigned to writing seminars based on their preferences.

"The basic idea," Thurn said, "is that we teach writing intensively in the context of an intellectually stimulating subject matter." To focus more on the writing, Thurn explained, "The new courses will reduce the amount of weekly reading."