Writing Remains a Foundational Skill, Even in an Age of Change – Higher Ed Careers

In this Higher Ed Careers interview, Leah Jackson speaks with Dr. Hannah Bellwoar, director of writing and co-director of the Writing and Speech Center at Juniata College, about why writing remains a foundational skill across disciplines and careers — and how she’s helping students recognize the value of human connection in writing and understand both the capabilities and limitations of AI.

Leah Jackson, HigherEdJobs: Tell us about your current role as director of writing and co-director of the Writing and Speech Center at Juniata College and what led you specifically to teach writing.

Hannah Bellwoar, professor of English and director of writing, Juniata College: My current role and career trajectory can be traced back to my education and what got me excited about the field. As an undergraduate English major at Temple University, I took a class on tutoring writing, and ended up working in the writing center there, where I started working one-on-one with writers. This work lit a spark in me; first, working one-on-one with a writer was fulfilling work, and second, being part of a team made me feel like my voice and my presence mattered and was having an impact.

As director of writing and co-director of the Writing and Speech Center, I’m responsible for the writing program. In my day-to-day work, I support writing instructors at Juniata, facilitating professional development and access to resources that support their teaching. I also teach and supervise writing tutors, training them to work with writers much as I did in my undergraduate days. I hope that many of them will find the same spark that I did!

Jackson: Introduction to Professional Writing is one of Juniata’s recommended general education courses for first-year students. Why is this such a key class, and why is building a strong writing foundation so important across disciplines and careers?

Bellwoar: Since I started teaching Introduction to Professional Writing as a graduate student in 2002, the class has remained focused on the same core skills: understanding audience and writing context. No matter the discipline or career, these skills are foundational. When I first started teaching this course at Juniata 10 years later, students practiced these skills by reading (about) professional writing, completing assignments in different genres, and using a variety of technological tools. In recent years, the course has been adapted to meet the ethical responsibility general education requirement at Juniata, and students consider how they might approach a variety of ethical situations related to writing in their chosen disciplines and careers. Even through all these adaptations, the primary focus of the course is NOT to teach students the skills they need to write for a professional organization, but to teach them how to learn the skills they need once faced with a professional writing situation.

Jackson: Has AI shifted the way you teach writing? And what conversations are you having with students about using AI ethically — both in the classroom and in terms of what might be expected of them by future employers?

Bellwoar: AI has certainly shifted the way I teach writing because it has shifted the way my students learn and engage in higher ed. In the classroom, I’m finding that AI can’t do for students everything that I want them to do or want them to learn. Leading students to recognize the limits of AI and the joys of interacting with humans has been my focus. In terms of what might be expected by future employers, a lot of what I have seen comes down to expectations of AI literacy. There are different aspects of AI literacy in the different courses that I teach. I was in several meetings on campus where campus leaders lamented reading cover letters from job candidates that appeared to be written by AI. That gave me the idea to have AI generate cover letters for my students in Intro to Professional Writing to look at the limitations. Also, since I work with the writing and speech tutors, in the curriculum we’ve been considering together the value of working with a human tutor and helping students recognize that value. As I work with students to consider the limitations, I’ve been refreshed by how many students are skeptical of AI, because it shows that it is possible for them to develop AI literacy and critical approaches to using this technology.

Jackson: Given how much emphasis there is today on career outcomes, what advice would you offer other writing professors who want to balance developing the whole person with preparing students for writing careers?

Bellwoar: In my experience, there is a lot of strength in a liberal arts approach to writing. I completed my undergraduate and graduate degrees at big universities, and Juniata was the first small liberal arts college experience that I had. In graduate school, the focus was on jobs at research universities like the one I attended, so although I had a breadth of teaching experience, I didn’t realize the depth of experience that might be available in a different type of environment.

I have found that a small liberal arts college like Juniata is a great place to teach professional writing. At the College, we focus on interdisciplinary work, and the professional and creative writing program of emphasis (major) includes coursework in communication, art, and information technology in addition to the core English courses students take. Because we are a small school, I am able to invest in relational pedagogy, setting aside time in class for students to work together and form a community supporting each other to succeed.

My advice to writing professors is to continue to invest in the core of professional writing that doesn’t change – audience and context. As writing professors, we should become lifelong learners ourselves, modeling for our students how to learn as we approach the changing workplace with curiosity, flexibility, and adaptability. And even if your class sizes are larger than mine, invest in relationships with students. Find ways to get to know students in your classes, listen to their feedback, and reach out to external resources to help support them in their learning, such as the writing and speech center, if you have one on your campus. In these ways, we model for students how they too can approach the people in the workplace as whole people, creating a community where each person matters and can make an impact, and supporting success wherever their career trajectory takes them.

Jackson: You’re the president of Small Liberal Arts Colleges-Writing Program Administrators (SLAC-WPA), and your annual conference was in January. What conversations are writing program administrators at small liberal arts colleges having right now? What trends are you seeing?

Bellwoar: In alignment with our theme, “Doubts, Data, and Decision-Making,” we had conversations about compassionate and collaborative assessment practices. Our theme was designed to celebrate the 2024 publication of the edited collection “Writing Assessment at Small Liberal Arts Colleges “and glean what continues to be relevant research that can help us face the challenges of being writing program administrators at small liberal arts college in the current moment. Collaborative and compassionate assessment practices include the work that I contributed to the edited collection along with former student and mentee Abby Madar. Our chapter, titled “Amplifying Student Voice in Writing Program Administration through Mutual Mentoring and Students as Partners,” highlighted our work together in the writing program at Juniata, where we collected and analyzed data that centered student voice in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the program. Through this collaboration, we each experienced reciprocity and mutual benefits to our academic, professional, and personal lives.

Presenters at the SLAC-WPA conference focused on their work in writing centers and writing programs in the face of the many challenges we are experiencing in higher education today. Presenters included collaborations of faculty, staff, and students at small liberal arts colleges across the country. Sessions focused on how AI is changing our work and our students’ work, how we assess our programs in situations where the future is uncertain, and how we continue to find meaning in our labor despite the challenges.

Jackson: What keeps you engaged and passionate about teaching the next generation of writers?

Bellwoar: I have been teaching Intro to Professional Writing since 2002, and when I went to teach it again this past fall, 23 years later, I wondered if I could bring enthusiasm and energy to the topic. I was surprised and excited to be kept engaged and passionate by the curiosity and fresh perspectives offered by my students. For example, on the day we put passive voice sentences on the board in order to edit them into active voice, the class erupted in uproarious laughter as we went around the room, each group sharing not only their humorous sentence but their hilarious drawing of zombies performing menial tasks (who knew that zombies analyzing data in Excel could be so funny!). Their senses of humor are infectious – and just the thing I need to keep me going all these years later. I am learning so much from the next generation of writers!