English Teaching & Graduate Assistantships
Teaching Assistantships
Graduate candidates who receive Teaching Assistantships benefit from professional development opportunities to teach courses such as First Year Writing and Rhetoric, Introduction to Literature, Critical Approaches to Poetry, Critical Approaches to Fiction, Critical Approaches to Drama, Advanced Composition, and Technical Writing.
Doctoral candidates also can gain valuable experience from the Apprenticeship in Teaching Literature program, designed to provide graduate students with experience in their period of specialization through participation with a faculty member in the planning, design, and teaching of an advanced undergraduate literature course. Ph.D. students also are eligible to apply for TA positions for professors teaching 3000-level literature courses.
All M.A. teaching associates take graduate training seminars in composition pedagogy, and all teaching associates teach their own courses. They can also teach classes in the department's two computer classrooms and gain other valuable experience as a staff consultant in the department's computer labs or as an assistant on various projects.
Doctoral and second-year master's students with teaching assistantships teach three courses per academic year (two courses in one semester; one course in the other). Master's students teach only two courses in their first year in the program (one course per semester).
Graduate Assistantships
When departmental need permits, graduate students with assistantships may teach an additional overload course (no more than one per year) for additional pay.
Graduate students with assistantships may work in one of the following positions, which reduce the teaching expectation for the student by one or more courses. Applications for each position are taken in the spring semester for the following year. Students are selected by a faculty adviser based on their abilities and qualifications.
Assistant Director of Composition
Eligible individuals include graduate teaching assistants in any concentration and adjunct faculty. The Assistant Director will work 15 hours a week, in place of teaching a course. (The pay will be equal to teaching a course.) Those interested in applying should prepare a (no more than) two-page vita and a (no more than) two-page application letter which specifies (1) their interest in the position, (2) their qualifications for the position, and (3) the significance of this position in relation to their career plans.
The Assistant Director will aid the Director in fulfilling many of the following responsibilities, as well as with specific research and teaching tasks:
- Advising graduate students on teaching responsibilities and department policies
- Designing and implementing TA orientation
- Serving as a member of the composition committee
- Scheduling TAs and Instructional Faculty for classes they teach
- Participating in evaluation of the writing program
- Other responsibilities as needed, including clerical tasks
Graduate students who are interested should contact Dr. Paul Shovlin, Director of Composition.
Graduate Assistant for Special Programs in Creative Writing
The Graduate Assistant for Special Programs in Creative Writing assists the coordinator with planning for and conducting the program's annual Spring Literary Festival, other readings, lectures, and residencies by distinguished visiting writers; planning and implementing the program's advertising and promotional campaigns, including an eight-page newspaper for the Spring Literary Festival; the design, production, and distribution of posters; and writing press releases; along with other duties.
Graduate students who are interested in this position should contact David Wanczyk, the Coordinator of Special Programs in Creative Writing.
Sphere/Undergraduate Creative Writing Liaison Graduate Assistant
Sphere is the Ohio University undergraduate literary magazine. The graduate assistant works with undergraduate editors and staff as needed on production and fundraising. Additionally, this individual works with the Director of Creative Writing and the Director of Undergraduate Studies on various initiatives aimed at creating community within our undergraduate creative writing cohort, planning special events, advertising and recruiting for CW courses, and relaying information via e-mail and other media channels. Graduate students who are interested in this position should contact the Director of Creative Writing.
Quarter After Eight Editor-in-Chief
The Editor-in-Chief of Quarter After Eight position provides the rare opportunity for a graduate student to manage a nationally distributed literary publication. Responsibilities include directing the aesthetic vision of Quarter After Eight, including making final editorial decisions; soliciting submissions, and managing the content, layout, and printing of the journal; acquiring funding through the Ohio Arts Council, the Student Activities Commission, sales; and managing the editorial, production, and reading staff. Top editors are chosen from among those students actively engaged in the journal's activities.
New Ohio Review Assistant Editor
The Assistant Editor assists in the daily operation and administration of New Ohio Review. Ideally, a candidate for this position would possess a real passion for making sure the journal remains one of the best in the nation. He or she also will be encouraged to solicit work from writers discovered in other literary magazines. Duties of the Assistant Editor include but are not limited to processing incoming and outgoing correspondence, including the daily submissions to the magazine; logging and distributing manuscripts to New Ohio Review staff readers and editors; proofreading; and supervising undergraduate work-study student assistants.
Graduate students who are interested should contact New Ohio Review editor David Wanczyk.
Writing Tutor
Writing fellows in the Writing Tutoring program in the Academic Advancement Center provide one-on-one writing assistance to students who come from all disciplines and carry with them a wide range of writing abilities. The tutoring assistance takes many forms, including helping students get started on writing assignments, providing feedback, direction, and support during the drafting and revising process, and offering supplemental help in developing proofreading strategies.
Additionally, writing fellows periodically offer writing tutoring presentations on services to instructors and their students, both within the classroom and in the Academic Advancement Center. Fellows must also attend regular staff meetings and training sessions and may be required to supervise undergraduate writing tutors.
- Applicants must be graduate students with excellent writing, reading, and thinking skills.
- Applicants must be able to demonstrate knowledge of the writing process and be able to communicate that knowledge to others. Strong organizational, interpersonal, and oral communication skills are required, as is the ability to constructively assess student writing at all stages.
- Applicants need to be able to keep thorough and detailed records. Second-year or beyond graduate students preferred.
Graduate students who are interested should contact David Haugen.