CNU Online Writing Lab, Have You Heard?
By Lee Min-young, Student Editor
Chonnam National University (CNU) has been focused on developing students’ writing ability with an aim to advance critical thinking, reasonable communication and creative problem solving. As a result, CNU is providing a writing class as a compulsory basic subject from this year and offers a major course centered on essay writing that began in 2006, one of the first such courses offered at a Korean university. To increase students’ basic competence, the CNU Education Development Research Institute (EDRI) will open the CNU Online Writing Lab for undergraduate students, staring from the second weekend in September, 2009.
Undergraduate students can request feedback about any type of writing at CNU Online Writing Lab (OWL). They can get feedback about theme, construction, expression and other areas within three days of submission, not including weekends. Each piece of writing should be less than 5 pages and written in Korean. To give more chances to all students, the frequency of feedback is limited to two times a month and feedback for the same submission is not counted. Students who want to be advised can submit their work to the EDRI website (ctl.jnu.ac.kr).
There are three steps to the writing feedback program; First, a student requests to submit their writing to OWL. Second, the submission receives feedback from an undergraduate student, a graduate student and one of the lab’s staff members. Lastly, after the feedback is finished, students can participate in a writing consultation satisfaction survey which will be used to improve the writing assistants’ consulting skills. Most importantly, the feedback does not fix a student’s writing. According to research, it is more effective to develop writing skills when a writer modifies their own writing. On the basis of this result, writing assistants only give advice on how to improve one’s work. Therefore, students should keep in mind that their writing advisor’s feedback or comments on their work is just guidance, and that the final corrections will be made on their own.
The OWL counselors consist of 20 undergraduate students and 5 graduate students, and the Lab is the first program in Korea where undergraduate students work as writing counselors. Only undergraduate students with a 3.5 grade average and an A or higher in writing class or major course centered on essay writing, were able to apply for the writing assistant positions. The assistants were selected based on the writing skills demonstrated in their cover letter and the passion, knowledge, and experience they displayed in their interview. Thereafter, they were given three days of training on the importance of writing feedback, different types of feedback and actual feedback practice.
Kim Hyeon-jeong, the researcher in charge of OWL, said, “The first goal of OWL is to let students know the importance of writing and obtaining feedback. Then, once students have assessed their writing ability, they can take steps to improve it. Once they have identified the problems they can feel free to visit OWL and get advice from students at a similar level. With substantial feedback, students’ writing skills will develop and they will be able to fix their work by themselves. To make these things happen, we need to create an atmosphere where students can see the value in having good writing skills.”
It is not easy to write something and show it to others. But through the OWL program, CNUians can get a better understanding of their writing and as a result, can improve their ability to write any type of material. For students who always worry about writing a report, cover letter, or essay this is a perfect chance. CNU hopes many students will use OWL to their benefit!
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