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By Anita Warren
Photo by Joseph Mehling '69
Today’s students may be gifted Googlers, but when it comes to real-world
research, Dartmouth students have an advantage over their peers: the College’s
Student Center for Research, Writing, and Information Technology. The center,
popularly known as RWiT, officially launched in fall 2004, charged with
boosting students’ abilities to conceive and craft their written, research, and
multimedia assignments.
“Its essential mission is to create a culture of composing on this campus,”
says Stephanie Boone.
“Whether it’s a multimedia project or a paper, the composing of it — shaping
it, making transitions between paragraphs, or a scene in a video — is pretty
similar,” adds Michael Beahan. “That’s why people are doing things like using
video projects in writing courses.”
Boone directs student writing support, and Beahan heads the Library’s Jones
Media Center. The Writing Program, the Library, and Academic Computing
collaborate to ensure the success of RWiT. More than 40 undergraduates and
several graduate students staff RWiT as tutors and writing assistants, teaching
other students the composition skills they need to complete their course
projects. Tutors are trained in, and share their knowledge of, how to pursue a
more effective research strategy, use software and equipment, explore Library
resources, and, in the end, produce a better paper or multimedia project. RWiT
staff teach — they do not edit or complete the work themselves.
The center has steadily gained popularity with both student tutors and
student clients since its debut. Applications to work there this year have more
than doubled over last year, and demand for services is so high a policy was
enacted limiting each client to two tutor-hours a week. Because RWiT’s
principal players — Computing Services, the Jones Media Center, and the Writing
Program — as well as other resources, such as the Reference Desk, map room, and
Student Help Desk, are located within the Library, the research process is
seamless for students.
The layout, while convenient for students, facilitates the partners’
collaborative efforts. And collaboration is the pivotal reason RWiT is so
successful — collaboration among the partners; collaboration of the partners
with students and faculty; of students with administrators, staff, the faculty,
and each other; and of the center with other departments on campus. Currently,
RWiT is collaborating with Career Services, helping students write personal
statements and cover letters; with Academic Skills to help raise awareness of
writers with special needs, such as ADD; and with the Rockefeller Center,
helping public policy students write policy statements and briefs.
“Everybody on this campus is in the business of facilitating student
learning, from faculty to the coaches to the people who dish out the food in
the dining halls,” says Laura Braunstein, English language and literature
librarian. “The RWiT collaboration is an example of one particular success of
how we have collaborated in that goal.”
Braunstein says she has talked about RWiT with people from other colleges
and universities and they have been impressed by how well the collaboration has
worked at Dartmouth.
“It’s about trusting other people and respecting their opinions. I really
think that’s in place here,” notes Susan Simon, instructional technology
specialist with Computing Services. “Because of RWiT, we’re much more
comfortable and able to approach each other, and so we work better and more
closely together on other projects. It’s a good group.”
RWiT is open to students Sunday through Thursday, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. and
7:00 – 10:00 p.m., with appointments on the hour.
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