The principal aim of the Fellow’s work is to foster good writing practice across disciplines and media
In October 2020, Rebeccca took up the role of inaugural Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Lucy Cavendish and described it as a ‘huge honour’. Rebecca has a longstanding relationship with the college - reading at the Women's Word festival in 2010 and then taking part in the Connections: Science, Poetry and the Brain project in 2019.
A year into the role, Rebecca reflects on the work she’s done, and the positive connections she’s made with staff and students.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year as Royal Literary Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College, where I have been made to feel very welcome. My position as the inaugural Royal Literary Fund (RLF) Fellow at the College was promoted widely at the start of the September term and an interview was published on the College website that no doubt helped to raise my profile in those initial weeks.
Once the Michaelmas term began, I participated in two ‘Meet the RLF Fellow’ online sessions, one held for undergraduates in Bridging Week, the other for postgraduates, in early October. Students were able to meet me, via Zoom, and I was able to describe my role, inform students how they may reach me and answer any questions. I also prepared a ten-minute video, introducing myself and explaining what I could offer staff and students as RLF Fellow. This is available in the members’ area of the website and here:
Along with the video, an e-flyer was circulated to all students and this prompted a rush of enquiries, which was encouraging. My role has also been regularly advertised on the ‘College Message Board’, a weekly email sent to all College staff and students. This acted as a regular reminder and helped to keep my profile visible. Throughout my year at Lucy Cavendish College I have appreciated the level of support from College staff. I knew who to reach and how, and always felt I could contact the necessary person whether it be about student appointments or IT matters.
Due to the pandemic, I worked remotely for the entirety of my first year as RLF Fellow, and all sessions were conducted online. The students I saw seemed to like the online platform, Whereby, used by the RLF and often commented on its efficiency. I have seen a stimulating range of students at Lucy Cavendish College, studying a variety of subjects including Law, Education, History, Creative Writing, Psychology, Political Sciences, Development Studies, HSPS, Sociology, Architecture, Japanese and Veterinary Science. Students have come to me with a range of work including supervisory essays, extracts from dissertations, literature reviews, abstracts, research proposals and bibliographies. Every single one of the students I have met at Lucy Cavendish College has been extremely courteous and engaged. Several students came back to see me for a second, third or even fourth time. Students can come to me to discuss any aspect of their academic writing. Typical areas of concern or problems that students experienced included understanding the essay question, navigating essay structure and paragraph composition, knowing when and how to use their own voice in academic writing, recognising the difference between formal and informal language, understanding grammar rules and knowing how to reference sourced material. I employed a variety of strategies to deal with these issues. Particularly helpful approaches included stressing the importance of preparation and talking through guides to essay planning; discussing an existing draft and aiding the student to recognise where structural changes could be made; participating in online grammar exercises with the student; mind-mapping; encouraging students to read sections of their work aloud so we could hear where sentence and or paragraph structure needed work; looking at examples of descriptive versus analytical writing. Any resources looked at during the session that the student found helpful were emailed to the student afterwards. Rather than add to their academic workload, I always told them to see such resources as a toolkit to refer to in their own time.
There is a rewarding pastoral element to the role of RLF Fellow, and this probably came into effect more than ever during the several lockdowns that spanned my first year at Lucy Cavendish College. I was mindful to begin each session checking on the welfare of the student, asking if they were living alone or with others, if they were able to see fellow course mates or friends, and how they were managing their time. These factors can affect how students approach their learning. I often found that talking to students about how they dealt with deadlines was a beneficial way of discovering more about their work patterns and became a good way of encouraging time management. It must be said however, that most students came to me allowing plenty of time ahead of their deadline, which I found reassuring. There were only a handful of appointments that involved extreme panic! Despite my virtual existence, I feel I have made positive connections at Lucy Cavendish College, with both staff and students. I am looking forward to my second year as RLF Fellow.
Feedback from students:
‘I cannot tell you how helpful these sessions have been. Everything about essay writing is becoming clearer now. Thanks a million.’
‘Thank you so much for our session, I really appreciate all of your advice and these resources are already very helpful.’
‘Thanks for all your help today - it was extremely helpful and calmed me a bit!’
‘Thank you so much for those resources and the supervision, I have benefitted from it a lot.’
‘Thank you so much for the session - it was very helpful. I’m feeling a lot more confident about things going forward.’
Rebecca will be continuing to work online this term. She can offer appointments on Thursdays and Fridays from October 7th. Please email Rebecca for more information: rebecca.goss@rlfeducation.org.uk