Close up photo of a young woman working on laptop with papers surrounding her on desk

Winners of Writing Program Awards named

Each year, the Department of English, SAGES and the Writing Program host the Writing Program Award Ceremony to honor award-winning teachers and students at the end of the year.

The celebration is a recognition of Case Western Reserve University writing faculty, which includes full- and part-time lecturers, SAGES Fellows, English graduate student assistants, and other friends of writing at the university.

The event was held earlier this month, with the following awards given.

The Jessica Melton Perry Award for Distinguished Teaching in Disciplinary & Professional Writing 

The award recognizes outstanding instruction in writing in professional fields and/or disciplines other than English.

Frank Ernst

Leonard Case Jr. Professor of Engineering and chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Photo of Frank Ernst and Timothy Beal
Frank Ernst and College of Arts and Sciences Interim Dean Timothy Beal

Ernst developed a new graduate course titled “Scientific Writing in Materials Science,” which addresses the wide range of skills needed by graduate students as they prepare theses, dissertations and journal articles for publication. The course emphasizes reading as well as writing scientific articles. His students spend time discussing relevant research literature and learning how to become critical reviewers of the scholarship in their fields of study. From formatting of mathematical formulae to overcoming writer’s block, the course provides much-needed scaffolding for developing scientific writers and scholars.

As one of his many student nominator’s wrote: “Prof. Ernst developed a welcoming and collegial environment for students to gain a deep understanding of the scientific writing process and to cultivate their own skills.”

Jonathan Sadowsky

Theodore J. Castele Professor of History

Photo of Jonathan Sadowsk and Timothy Beal
Jonathan Sadowsky and College of Arts and Sciences Interim Dean Timothy Beal

From humanities students to biomedical engineers—many of whom have never spent a lot of time on their writing—Sadowsky works with students at all stages of their writing development and at various educational levels. Over the last three years, every single student in his course (nearly 100 of them) has reported becoming a writer by the end of the semester.

Much of the credit for the students’ progress is attributable to Sadowsky’s patience and thoroughness as he reads and responds to weekly analytical papers from every student and meets writers outside of class to continue discussing their work.

One of his doctoral students explained: “The right question asked at the right moment can have a profound impact on one’s intellectual trajectory. Jonathan Sadowsky has a knack for asking the right questions … I credit my growth as a writer and historian to the questions [he] has asked, year after year, milestone after milestone.”

The SAGES Excellence in Writing Instruction Award

This award recognizes outstanding commitment to and success in teaching academic writing to CWRU undergraduates in SAGES.

Eric Chilton

Lecturer of English and SAGES Teaching Fellow

Photo of Eric Chilton and Peter Whiting
Photo of Eric Chilton and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Peter Whiting

Transformative is a word Chilton’s students use about his courses. One student wrote: “[he] taught me how to write a more effective research paper and gave me a new perspective towards my surroundings, ultimately transforming me into a completely different person than who I used to be.”

Passionate and dedicated are words that Chilton’s collaborators use to describe his teaching style. “One of the things that most impresses me about Eric’s approach,” writes one faculty collaborator, “is how effectively he introduces the idea of developing a compelling counter-argument when writing papers, as it creates an environment where students genuinely need to consider and weigh opinions that run counter to their own. This develops both critical thinking and empathy in the students.”

Kristine Kelly

Lecturer of English and SAGES Teaching Fellow

Photo of Kristine Kelly and Peter Whiting
Kristine Kelly and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Peter Whiting

One of Kelly’s faculty collaborators wrote: “I must admit that I have learned as much as our students have about writing and writing instruction from Kris.” This is a consistent theme in Kelly’s evaluations—she is a collaborator who is generous with her knowledge and who challenges everyone to learn and grow, including herself.

As a demonstration of her love of learning and growing, Kelly has developed new and creative projects that engage students in digital and multimodal writing. She has brought classes year after year to the Celebration of Student Writing and Research, often with innovative multi-media presentations of their work.

Her students rave about these experiences and about how much Kelly has done to improve their writing and learning.

The WRC Excellence in Consulting Award

This award recognizes outstanding writing instruction for students of the university and exemplary service to the Writing Resource Center during the academic year.

Anthony Wexler

Lecturer of English and SAGES Teaching Fellow

Photo of Kimberly Emmons and Anthony Wexler
Kimberly Emmons, the Oviatt Professor, and Anthony Wexler

One student who nominated Wexler for this award noted he was always a “helpful and kind resource,” while another noted his “very calming energy.”  Yet another student wrote that Wexler “gives focused, tangible and direct feedback on writing during appointments, which I think is very important—it’s easy to say ‘make your writing more like …’ but to put forth the effort to give specific feedback, every time, is so helpful. “

Wexler’s approach to consulting focuses on the student as a developing writer, and his remarks emphasize the value of working one-on-one with student writers. In his consulting philosophy, he described one student encounter: “After multiple sessions, [the student] came to see how the writing process could help her to better understand why she wanted to become a doctor. In this way, she realized just how much the act of writing could help her to think through a given issue or question. These encounters, and others like them, have made the WRC a wonderful place to work.”

Celebration of Student Writing & Research honors

Photo of Bill Ding and Barbara Burgess-Van Aken
Bill Ding and Barbara Burgess-Van Aken

The Celebration of Student Writing & Research is a university-wide showcase of student writing and research projects. It encourages students to present and display their scholarly and creative work in formats other than word-processed letters and lines on the printed page. The celebration is held each semester in conjunction with Intersections: SOURCE Symposium and Poster Session and Research ShowCASE in the spring; it is sponsored by SAGES and the Writing Program.

The following students were recognized at the awards ceremony.

Fall 2018

  • Best Individual Research Presentation winner: Anna Giubileo (FSSY 185R: Oh the Places You Will Go!; instructor: Cara Byrne)
  • Best Individual Research Presentation runner-up: Bill Ding (USSO 286L: Exploring Nonprofit Organizations; instructor Barbara Clemenson)
  • Best Class Presentation: FSCC 100: International Student Wellness (Instructor: Mary Assad)

Spring 2019

Best Individual Research Presentation winner: Nick Charles (USSY 291H: Radical Children’s Literature; instructor: Cara Byrne)

Best Individual Research Presentation runner-up: Prerna Mamileti (USNA 287P: Woman and Science; instructor: Barbara Burgess-Van Aken)

Best Class Presentations: FSCC 100-100: Defining Community (Instructor: Mary Assad) and USSO 290B: Contemporary American Rhetoric (Instructor: Martha Schaffer)

SAGES First and University Seminar Essay Prizes

Photo of Jessica Bumgarner, Isabella Pua and James Kristell
Jessica Bumgarner, Isabella Pua and James Kristell

These prizes recognize the best writing that students produce in their First and University Seminars. These essays are chosen from those nominated by SAGES seminar leaders each semester.

First Seminar Awards

The First Seminar Awards are judged in January and recognized at the Celebration of Student Writing in April each year.

The winners for Academic Year 2017-2018 are:

  • “Space for LGBTQ+ Children in Jessica Love’s Julián is a Mermaid” by Jessica Bumgarner, written for FSSY 185R: Oh the Places You Will Go; Cara Byrne (seminar leader)
  • “Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton: A Revolutionary(?) Musical” by Kehley Coleman, written for FSSY 185M: Hamilton and American Identity; Caitlin Kelly (seminar leader)
  • “Time to Get out of the Margins” by Tatiana Pavlides, written for FSSO 185F: Reading—Past, Present, Future; Barbara Burgess-Van Aken (seminar leader)

University Seminar Awards

The University Seminar Awards are judged in September and recognized at the Celebration of Student Writing in December of each year. The winners for Academic Year 2017-2018 are:

  • “Social Context and the Popular Reception of Poetry: The Examples of Dickinson and Longfellow” by James Kristell, written for USSY 293I: High Art and Guilty Pleasures; Steve Pinkerton (seminar leader)
  • “Redefining Health: Peyote, Ritual Healing, and the Concept of the  Soul” by Isabella Pua, written for USNA 287H: Plants in Medicine; Erika Olbricht (seminar leader)
  • “The Needle and the Damage Done: Needle Exchanges and the AIDS Epidemic” by Grace Schaller, written for USSO 291A: “We’re Dying in America”: The History of the US AIDS Crisis; Andrea Milne (seminar leader)

All of the essays and information about the essay prizes are available online at Writing@CWRU.