In addition to this kind of individualized attention, the center sponsors workshops on academic fundamentals like note taking, critical reading and email etiquette as well as more advanced topics like oral presentations, writing style and paper revision. For non-native English speakers, there are sessions to help students improve their listening, speaking and grammar skills. Students come in for help with cover letters, journal articles, dissertation chapters, technical reports and even museum catalog entries — all manner of assignments. They can record, practice and evaluate their oral presentations and research posters in a specially equipped “smart room.”
Faculty request advice on designing syllabi, especially for the freshmen seminars, said Wilson. She and Volz lead a faculty writing retreat each year for the Office of Faculty Development. Rice’s service-oriented and curricular approach to communication sets it apart from other university-based writing centers. “I think Rice is unique, but not alone, in taking a multimodal approach to communication … but the vast majority of institutions focus on writing support,” said Volz. To this end, a lot of the center’s work takes place outside its Fondren Library hub, as staff take on a number of specialized projects across campus. For example, Festa serves as kind of a go-to
A TOPICAL WONDERLAND SUPPLANTS THE COMPOSITION COURSE First-year Writing-Intensive Seminars
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T’S ONE OF THE MOST DRAMATIC SCENES OF THE BELOVED 1939 CLASSIC “THE WIZARD OF OZ.” As a giant tornado snakes across the darkening Kansas plains, Auntie Em, Uncle Henry and the farmhands seek shelter in a storm cellar. Arriving too late to take shelter underground and struggling against a fierce wind, Dorothy (clutching her dog, Toto) finds her way 44
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to a bedroom. She’s knocked unconscious by a window, and in the next scene, the house spirals up into the twister. Awakening, Dorothy sees familiar and frightening characters parading by. When the house finally plummets from the sky and lands with a thud, a strange and literally colorful new world beckons. When Heather Elliott Neill ’12, a fellow in the
resource for faculty, who come to her with requests for workshops that are tailored to specific course assignments, projects, requirements and more. Among her many specialized projects, she has worked with Rice’s Center for Civic Leadership on capstone presentations; with Kurt Stallmann, associate professor of composition and theory at the Shepherd School of Music, to help students craft personal artists’ statements; and with the Program in Poverty, Justice and Human Capabilities to create digital stories about students’ international service work. Read more about the students involved in these projects at ricemagazine. atavist.com.
PWC, played this scene for a class of freshmen last fall, all eyes were glued to the screen. No doubt most of the students had seen this movie countless times. And yet, as Neill pointed out, none of this scene’s delightful details were included in L. Frank Baum’s original stories about Oz. In fact, Neill said, “There’s no indication that Oz is a dream.” She asked, what was the same and what was different — and why? What can Rice freshmen learn from reading Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and other classic children’s novels like “Treasure Island,” “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Anne of Green Gables”? FWIS 181: The Golden