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THE MARYLAND SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY
WRITING COACH PROGRAM
Background
The program was established in 2010 because many faculty members were frustrated
with the quality of students’ writing. According to Executive Dean Powers, the School needed
“to get rid of spaghetti writing.” As a result, the School adopted a comprehensive set of writing
guidelines, outlining expectations for student compositions and created the writing coaching
program using a “train the trainers” approach. Coaches are second year students with high
GPAs and strong writing skills. Each coach works with a group of roughly thirty students,
helping them shift from writing lengthy academic papers to writing concise, professional
documents meant for the work place.
Writing Guidelines
The first task was to develop writing guidelines applicable to the School of Public Policy.
The draft guidelines went through multiple reviews before receiving faculty approval. (See
Appemdix One.)
Writing Skills Scorecard
Critical to the program is a writing skills scorecard which is used for assessing key
elements of writing. The categories for evaluation are:
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Responsiveness to audience
Responsiveness to assignment
Tone
Thesis
Flow/organization
Paragraph and sentence structure
Format
Conciseness
Documentation/factual accuracy
Grammar
Each category is rated on a scale of one to five, with five being best. The scorecard is a
tool for students to self-evaluate their writing, for coaches to evaluate student writing and to
facilitate communication about ways to improve. During the 2012-13 academic year, coaches
proposed separating the scorecard into two stages, focusing initially only on the first five
categories and then for a second review dealing with the last five. This is an option for students
choosing to work closely with their coaches. (See Appendix Two)
For the 2013-14 academic year, each incoming student will be asked to do a generic selfevaluation using all ten categories, which coaches can access when reviewing student’s work.
The self-evaluation is in a dedicated space on Canvas and cannot be accessed by others.
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Time Line
The schedule for the writing program each year is:
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The selection of coaches – summer
Coaches’ training – just before orientation
Orientation presentation to incoming students and introduction of coaches
Coaching of students – throughout the academic year through scheduled one-onone sessions, drop-in office hours and brown bag discussion sessions.
New in 2013-14 will be an effort to develop a voluntary writing certification program,
through which students can complete one or more examinations and become certified through
the School as an able writer. This certification could then be included on students’ resumes.
Coach Selection Process
Coaches are selected from the second year Graduate Assistant pool. Applicants submit a
resume, cover letter, and two writing samples. The Program Directors, Vicki Lathom and
Jacqueline Rogers, review the submissions and then interview the most promising applicants for
employment as 10 hour Graduate Assistants.
Coach Training and Monthly Meetings
New coaches attend a two-day, intensive training session before the start of the fall
semester. Prior to the training, coaches read the Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors by Leigh
Ryan and Liza Zimmerelli, review the School’s writing guidelines and scorecard, test grammar
skills through online quizzes, and compose documents on assigned topics to practice coaching
during the training session. (See Appendix Three.) Coaches are taught to provide constructive
feedback, but they do not edit student papers, except to illustrate a recurrent problem which the
student has.
After the training, coaches meet monthly with the Program Directors to review
experiences and discuss any problems. The topics usually include discussion of specific difficult
coaching situations, suggestions for solutions, faculty feedback, comparisons of coaching
sessions and brain-storming about ways to increase faculty and student engagement.
Orientation Presentation
Incoming students attend an orientation session which includes a presentation by the
Program Directors and introduces students to their coaches.
The core of the orientation is a PowerPoint presentation with information about the
writing guidelines and the scorecard. The presentation highlights the importance of conciseness
and includes a few tips on this subject, as well as common grammar and punctuation errors.
Finally, students get together in groups with their coaches to learn how to best take advantage of
the coaching help and complete their generic self-evaluations. The 2013 Orientation
PowerPoint Presentation is in Appendix Four.
How Coaches Assist Students
Students can receive assistance from their coaches in four ways: pre-arranged meetings,
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electronic coaching, walk-in office hours, and lunchtime topic-specific sessions.
Pre-Arranged Meetings. In order to get the most out of each meeting, students are
asked to send copies of their drafts to coaches in advance accompanied by the assignment from
the professor This allows the coaches to read the student’s writing and be better prepared to
provide assistance efficiently.
Although email is convenient, face to face meetings provide more in-depth coaching than
possible with electronic correspondence. For this reason, prearranged meetings are preferable
for helping students with concerns about a specific assignment or who require special
assistance. If this is not possible, video calling services, such as Skype and Facetime, allow a
virtual substitute.
Electronic Coaching. Electronic coaching has become popular with students. A student
simply sends his/her coach an email, which attaches a draft paper, the assignment prompt from
the professor, a list of areas of concern, and a scorecard self-evaluation. Coaches then use the
Track Changes function in Microsoft Word to provide feedback.
The draft with the coach’s comments is sent back to the student and if the student
desires, he/she can send a second draft back, noting any new points of concern. This back-andforth continues until the student is satisfied with the product. For many students the
convenience of this approach is invaluable.
Office Hours. Coaches hold two drop-in office hours every week. Experience shows
that the drop-in hours are best scheduled around lunchtime and early afternoon from Monday
through Thursday. Bottlenecks occur occasionally, because the number of students arriving at
the same time can be unpredictable and coaches must read drafts on the spot for the first time.
However, office hours still provide a flexible way to provide writing assistance promptly.
Lunch-time Seminars. In pairs, coaches schedule events open to all MSPP students
which focus on a special aspect of writing. Open discussion follows an initial presentation.
During the fall semester, topics usually deal with the difference between academic writing and
writing for busy people or a stage of writing: pre-writing, drafting and revision. In the spring,
seminars are scheduled only before spring break and address more specialized topics. Students
may propose topics to their coaches, which will be considered during the monthly meetings.
Faculty Outreach
In order to strengthen the program, coaches engage faculty members to discuss the
program, ascertain their writing priorities and request referrals, if a student is performing at the
low B level. This allows coaches to tailor their assistance to the preferences of professors.
Faculty priorities are available to the coaches and for the Executive Dean’s review via Canvas,
but not to students.
When a professor thinks that a student would benefit from coaching, he or she can refer the
student to the School’s Academic Advisor, Kenneth Durril, who then links the student with his
or her assigned coach. The student’s coach is also informed; however, it is the student’s
responsibility to pursue the lead. Faculty outreach has helped increase acceptance of the
coaching program since, as is the case with many new endeavors, some initial response has been
skeptical. In 2013-14, faculty and student perspectives will be sought with regard to the
potential voluntary writing certification.
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Lessons Learned
Much learning comes from being on the job. Below are some lessons learned from the
2012-13 coaches.
Be flexible. Coaches need to use a variety of methods in dealing with students. For some
students, phone calls to discuss comments are helpful, while others need face to face interaction.
As one coach put it, “I have no set formula for helping the students; they know best how I can
help and guide them. I let them lead the way and I try to be as constructive as possible.”
Ask questions. Some students have difficulty analyzing the subject or thinking through
an issue. In this case, coaches have found it is most helpful simply to ask questions, getting
students to probe deeper into the issue, think critically and tap into new ideas. A writing coach
need not be an expert on the subject of the student’s paper, but can stimulate the writing process
or encourage a richer final product.
Break up the feedback. In some cases, the scorecard evaluation can be overwhelming.
Having more than one session about a paper can work, with initial focus on the first five
scorecard criteria a second session devoted to the last five.
Schedule Events at Beginning of Semester. It is important to schedule events as early as
possible in the semester. Seminars, in particular, should be scheduled well in advance to reserve
a room, as the lunchtime slot on Mondays through Thursdays is busy. Holding seminars earlier
in the semester nets a larger attendance, since students tend to be overwhelmed in the time
leading up to finals.
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