Boquet & Lerner’s 2016 article, Introduction to ATD Special Issue on WAC and HighImpact Practices introduces the reader to the concept of HighImpact Practices (HIP) as an intervention in college writing. Boquet and Lerner refer to Kuh to define HIP, quoting that they are “‘an investment of time and energy over an extended period that has unusually positive effects on student engagement in educationally purposeful behavior'”. Admittedly, this initial definition sounded a bit reminiscent of ancient Hellenic psychologists offering curb-side lobotomies. It completely contrasted my general idea of how one improves their own writing; primarily because it implies that educational practices have some role in one’s writing capability. I have, for most of my formal education, regarded writing as a personal talent which could arduously be built up to resemble something professional, concise, and clear. As a writing tutor and fellow, I have refuted and soothed many of my peer’s own comments about how they, “just suck at writing”, and how they’ve “never been good at writing or reading”. To think that a professional skill can have (and has) an influence on the quality of someone else’s writing is quite contrary to the very basis of my own philosophy. To clarify, I firmly believe that peer and professional support has a large impact on the ability of a writer to express themselves more articulately. However, I have always placed the responsibility of this improvement on the writer. The concept of HIP does hold me, in some regard, culpable for the quality of writing being produced by those I assist. As I continued to read the article, I arrived upon the list of HIP exemplified:
“• Learning Communities
• Writing-Intensive Courses
• Collaborative Assignments and Projects
• Undergraduate Research
• Diversity/Global Learning
• Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
• Internships
• Capstone Courses and Projects”.
This assuaged many of the overwhelming feelings that had accompanied the idea of introducing an entirely knew educational theory into my tutoring repertoire; because, evidently., UNE already has many of these resources and practices in place. Additionally, I discovered that while I had originally interpreted HIP ton be something that I needed to utilize, I discovered that my presence as a writing tutor/fellow is the combination of many high-impact practices. The list also clarified how HIP works. Instead of implementing some immensely sophisticated pedagogical equation, we just have to make sure that writing practices engage students in a way that is meaningful and relevant to them. To me, that is an intuitive way to approach teaching/tutoring writing. In a way, I feel that I’ve already been trying to attempt micro-impact practices by focusing on interdisciplinary approaches to writing and emphasizing them in tutoring meetings. In a way, by utilizing my peer’s field of interest, and the field of interest their writing regards, I’ve been ensuring that whatever they’re writing about they can be confident it will transfer to the real world.
I think that this concern is what Boquet and Lerner are discuss in the beginning of their article, writing, “A common (and, frankly, tired) trope in higher education is that students are a problem: They’re ‘academically adrift’ (Arum & Roksa, 2011)” (2016). While I do agree that the value of theoretical knowledge has degraded amongst the majority of the college students, I think that they truly are hoping for their college education to inform their future profession. Occasionally, they are rather explicit in their definition of how their education might do this, but I think they also make a useful point. Why spend several weeks learning about William Wordsworth’s romantic poetry when you’re more interested in the research of zooxanthellae? This is a concern that I can resonate with, and very much understand (my thoughts travel to a rather arduous marketing class). However, I believe this mentality is unrightfully transposed into many student’s attitudes towards English classes (especially at UNE). Due to the immense number of health professions and science majors, writing tends to be looked at as the . necessary evil standing in between many student’s medical school acceptance letters and themselves.Considering this, I think both utilizing the engagement section Boquet and Lerner’s article, as well as my own interpretation of how interdisciplinary practices have a similar effect, will be integral to my creation of writing resources.
Boquet and Lerner’s introduction expresses a key part of HIP is that they ensure that before students are willing to fix their writing they care about what they’re writing about.
