Orientation

The Writing and Communication Program (WCP) has two orientations for incoming Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellows. (1) In 2007, Rebecca Burnett and L. Andrew Cooper (then WCP Assistant Director) extended the New Britttain Fellow Orientation (NBFO) to a full week. During the five days, incoming Brittain Fellows meet WCP, LMC, IAC, and Georgia Tech leadership. They also meet LMC support staff, see demonstrations of multimodal lessons, work on assignments and assessment, examine ways to use the program’s core textbook (WOVENText), and complete their HR onboarding. The photo shows Nick Carbone, Director of Digital Teaching and Learning at Bedford/St. Martin’s (an imprint Macmillan Higher Education, the publisher of WOVENText), working with incoming Brittain Fellows during the NBFO. (2) In 2012, Rebecca Burnett and Robin Wharton (then WCP Assistant Director) created an additional orientation — a 2-hour, midsummer syllabus workshop (via Hangout). Conducted in small groups of four to six, this virtual workshop (a) provides new Brittain Fellows with detailed syllabus, assignment, and assessment criteria, (b) introduces them to programmatic expectations, and (c) gives them an opportunity to meet a few new colleagues and ask burning questions before constructing their initial syllabus for their fall classes.

Georgia Tech loves abbreviations and acronyms. These are the ones in the preceding paragraph:
CC = Communication Center
IAC = Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
LMC = School of Literature, Media, and Communication
WCP = Writing and Communication Program

TECHStyle

The online journal of the Brittain Fellowship, TECHStyle, was conceived initially by Rebecca Burnett and Roger Whitson (Brittain Fellow 2009-2011; currently Assistant Professor, Washington State University) and collaboratively developed by a team of Brittain Fellows in 2010 (Roger Whitson, TECHStyle Administrator. Kathryn Crowther, Managing Editor. Andrew Famiglietti, Technical Administrator. Nirmal Trivedi, Technical Administrator. Diane Jakacki, Production Editor. Robin Wharton, Production Editor. Jesse Stommel, Production Editor). TECHStyle focuses on short articles by Brittain Fellows about topics related to teaching, research, technology, and life in academia. TECHStyle gives voice to a vibrant community of innovative scholars and teachers and opens up that conversation to the world. The current TECHStyle editor is Eric Rettberg (Brittain Fellow 2014-present).

Speaker Series

In 2007, Rebecca Burnett implemented the Writing and Communication Program Speaker Series. Since 2013, it sometimes works in conjunction with the LMC Speaker Series. The guest speakers address topics of particular interest to the Writing and Communication faculty. Pictured here is one of the WCP speakers,  Dr. Marc Okrand, the UC Berkeley linguist who invented the Klingon language used in the Star Trek movies and television shows.

Colloquium

In 2007, Rebecca Burnett initiated the Writing and Communication Program’s Research into Teaching Colloquium (usually organized by the Special Events Committee). The Colloquium is an opportunity for Brittain Fellows and other faculty members to discuss the ways in which their research influences their teaching. The Colloquium sessions (to which the entire Georgia Tech community is invited) vary — sometimes a research into teaching presentation, sometimes a presentation followed by a formal response. The photo shows JoAnne Harris (Brittain Fellow 2008-2011; currently Assistant Professor, Georgia Gwinnett College) giving a presentation about the ways she uses her research about Caribbean culture, language, and literature in her teaching.

Hall Colloquy

In 2008, Rebecca Burnett initiated the Hall Colloquy, a semi-annual Writing and Communication Program event in which Brittain Fellows, occasional guests from across campus, and the WCP and Communication Center leadership focus on a particular disciplinary topic for a half-day of in-depth presentation and discussion with Col. Stephen Hall (pictured here) and Mrs. Pamela Hall. The discussions have included a range of topics, from blogging as a critical part of writing instruction to ethics in composition and tech comm, from visual rhetoric to language conventions.

 Mentoring

In 2008, Rebecca Burnett created a Mentoring Committee (since integrated as part of WCP’s Professional Development Committee). Since 2008, incoming Brittain Fellows are paired with a more experienced Brittain Fellow and since 2011 with a more experienced Brittain Fellow and an academic professional, researcher, or tenure-line faculty member. The Writing and Communication Program has a mission to help incoming Brittain Fellows, both increasing their confidence and giving them a sense of belonging in their new professional home. We receive positive feedback from mentors and mentees who have active, ongoing relationships, some of which blossom into professional and personal friendships that extend well beyond the expectation of ongoing contact for the first year. LMC faculty member Anne Pollock is pictured here with Joy Robinson (Brittain Fellow 2013-2015; now Assistant PRofessor at the University of Alabama-Huntsville) and Rebecca Weaver (Brittain Fellow 2012-2015; now Assistant Professor at Georgia Perimeter College) . Ann Pollock is a dedicated and valuable mentor to Brittain Fellows.

Awards

In 2007, Rebecca Burnett and L. Andrew Cooper (then WCP Assistant Director) established four Writing and Communication Program awards. The faculty awards for Brittain Fellows include an Award for Multimodal Innovative and an Award for Pedagogical Excellence. The student awards include an Award for WOVEN Communication in English 1101/1102 and an Award for WOVEN Communication in Technical Communication. The photo shows Christine Hoffmann’s English 1102 students—Stephen Jesse Brotman, Elizabeth Anne Fuller, Sarah Ward, and Hector Javier Garcia Navas—who won the 2014 Award for WOVEN Communication in English 1102. All awards come with a certificate and a cash acknowledgement.