Volume CXXXIII, Number 15 February 8, 2002 f

Writing Project enjoys unprecedented success
JUSTIN BOYNTON
STAFF WRITER

Do you think students who get into Bowdoin College do not need to improve their writing? Faculty and employers would urge you to surrender the fantasy; a record number of Bowdoin students did during the fall semester by joining the Writing Project. The number of participants in the Writing Project was the highest since the program's inception in 1994.

A comparison of enrollment for the last three fall semesters shows an increase of over 100%. In the fall of 1999, there were 112 student/assistant meetings. In the fall of 2000, there were 150. This past fall, there were over 250 meetings.

Several factors contributed to the large increase. First of all, faculty and student orientation featured the benefits of the Writing Project. Secondly, students from previous Writing Project classes have continued to use the program. Perhaps the most significant contribution has come from the new online registration: by going to any computer one can sign up here.

The purpose of the Writing Project is to help students become better writers, regardless of the student's current level or field of study. The Writing Project has already provided guidance to students in over 100 courses, ranging from English to Computer Science.

The Writing Project develops a student's skill in communicating with a reader who is not an expert in the paper's field of study. With such readers, more thorough explanations become necessary. These more thorough explanations require more effective writing; so while the factual content within a paper is not likely to change, the clarity of the content will improve.

Even if a student's assigned assistant turns out to be less helpful than you expected, the structure of the Writing Project alone offers benefit. The advanced preparation and thought necessary to hand in a rough draft of a paper, the break from the paper one gets before reviewing it with the assistant, and the new look one is able to give the paper when it is returned for a final draft are all steps that will better your paper.

The Writing Project receives consistently positive reviews by students and faculty. At the end of each semester, students and professors are given an extensive questionnaire to evaluate the effectiveness of the project. The majority of these responses commend the program.