Meet the 2019-2020 Writing Fellows Cohort!
Welcome
The Undergraduate Writing Fellows Program brings talented undergraduates and committed faculty together in a cooperative effort to improve student writing. The program prepares selected students from a wide range of majors to serve as peer writing tutors, called Writing Fellows. Fellows work closely with professors and students on writing in a variety of courses across the College of Letters and Science. The program enables accomplished and enthusiastic student writers to share their writing skills and intellectual curiosity with other undergraduates.
Two beliefs underlie the program:
- Collaboration among student peers is an especially effective mode of learning.
- All writers, no matter how accomplished, can improve their writing by sharing work in progress and making revisions based upon constructive criticism.
The Fellows put these beliefs into practice, serving as guides and role models for their peers while gaining invaluable experience for themselves.
By placing undergraduates in positions of intellectual leadership and creating new opportunities for intellectual exchange between and among students and faculty, the Writing Fellows Program helps fulfill the University’s teaching mission and seeks to build a community of undergraduates dedicated to uniting intellectual inquiry with service to the University.
Thank you for your interest in applying to the Writing Fellows program!
The application will be available later this fall until the deadline Monday, March 8, 2021.
Learn about the program and get application tips at an Info Session:
Attend one of our open houses to hear about the program from current Fellows and learn more about the application process!
Fill out our registration form to receive a Zoom link in advance of the open house you’d like to attend.
- Monday, November 8 from 6 to 7 p.m.
- Wednesday, November 18 from 5 to 6 p.m.
The Writing Fellows Program application is hosted on WiSH (the Wisconsin Scholarship Hub) and that is where you can access our application when it goes live at the end of the semester.
Selected applicants will be invited to a thirty-minute interview, decisions will be finalized by the end of April, and selected Fellows will begin their work the following Fall semester.
Application Process
Apply online through WiSH.
- Log on to WiSH and click on the “Visit My Scholarships” link. After logging in and answering a few yes/no questions, you will be presented with links to applications for scholarships for which you are eligible, with open application cycles. If you do not see the Writing Fellows application on your list, and you believe you meet the eligibility requirements, please contact Emily Hall, Director of the Writing Fellows Program, ebhall@wisc.edu.
The Undergraduate Writing Fellows Application
- Personal statement in the form of a 1–2 page (600 words max.) letter which discusses why you want to be a Writing Fellow and what you would like us to know about you. Describe any relevant skills or special perspectives you would bring to the program as well as any specific experiences that illustrate your ability to do Writing Fellows work.
- Short answers to several application questions including a description of any relevant extra-curricular activities, honors, or teaching experiences.
- Two academic writing samples that represent your best work. Choose papers from courses in different areas of study and be sure to include at least one, preferably two, pieces of analytical or argumentative writing (feel free to include a lab report as long as it illustrates your analytical writing – e.g., the Introduction and/or Discussion sections). For each selected paper, you will need to write a description of the assignment and a brief explanation of why you have selected it for us to review.
- A UW-Madison transcript (automatically attached to your online application; you do not need to order a transcript)
- A recommendation letter from a professor or teaching assistant at UW-Madison. Recommendations are used to determine whether you are a strong candidate for the Writing Fellows Program. Please ask a professor or teaching assistant who has taught you in a course at UW-Madison and who knows you and your written work well. Contact the recommender(s) before you list them on this application. We recommend asking them at least two weeks in advance.
Applications will be due on March 8, 2021, at 5:00 PM. You can preview a past version of the application here.
If you have any questions about the program, please contact Emily Hall, Director of the Writing Fellows Program (ebhall@wisc.edu).
