FAQ

The Mellon Writing Program at Macaulay Honors College is a new initiative to help Macaulay students take their writing “from good to great.” It pairs  Macaulay students with Ph.D. candidate writing mentors from a variety of disciplines for sustained work over time.

Students in the program will be paired with mentors for ongoing work. Student-mentor pairs will discuss a mutually convenient time for writing workshop sessions. These will take place on the student’s home campus or at Macaulay central.  Some sessions may take place virtually if necessary.

In the application for the Mellon Writing Program, we ask for the writing sample. You do not need to write something new. An essay that you have written for one of your college courses would be a good choice. Your writing sample can be relatively brief–one to three  pages will do, but if you want to turn in something longer, that’s also okay.

The focus of your sessions will be improving the writing you are already doing in your courses. Mentors may provide exercises to help you hone specific skills, but you will not be given extra formal assignments on top of your coursework.

The focus of this program is on mentoring and skill development over time. We do not offer single drop-in sessions at this time.

We hope to run this program next year, but cannot commit to it right now. If you are interested, apply to be part of it now!

Sessions between mentors and students will be highly tailored to the needs of each participating student. Sometimes sessions might focus on meeting your upcoming coursework deadlines, creating action plans for longterm assignments, or breaking down components of the writing process to make it easier to achieve your academic goals. Mentors and students will collaboratively set priorities, and mentors will devise plans to meet the needs of their students. Each session will be approximately 45 minutes long.

Contact Lisa Brundage, lisa.brundage@mhc.cuny.edu.