Writing Center Meeting Minutes 01/31/11 6:00 pm

Dr Bob has been teaching at Coe College since the summer of 1980.

Sent invites to faculty for Tuesday afternoon teas who had three or more requests.

Next Tuesday afternoon tea– John Chaimov

-John Lemos

-Stehanie Sowinski

-Brie Swenson Arnold

-President Phifer

-focus will be on different genres of writing

Liz Steele’s alarm goes off but no worries she is awake.

Sunday dinner went well and there is left over chili in the fridge.

Packers and Steelers are in the Superbowl next Sunday but Dr. Bob couldn’t care less.

Tonight’s business:

Review personal statements

Rhodes Scholar – one year Iowa had 12 finalists, 3 of the 12 were from Coe’s writing center,

-Dr Bob wrote all three letters of recommendations. It was one of his hardest writing
assignments individualizing and not duplicating phrasing for all three recommendations.

Comments on personal statement #1

-Cross-cultural Psychology and Schoolchildren in China

- Explain more why she wants to be a Rhodes scholar and her ultimate goals
- More emphasis on her “positive disintegration” comment and perhaps expand on the
concept
- Biggest struggle with grad school essays – do not know what the audience is looking for
- Explain more of what she wants to do with her cross cultural study
 - Trouble with committing to future plans - audience knows ten times more about the subject
than the applicant
- Have to be authoritative in the text – biggest weakness in personal statements
- First paragraph is written too passively
- Stories are a good way to start but connect the anecdote throughout
- Opening did not flow
- Enormous pressure on the introduction – readers make judgments within the first few
paragraphs
- Does not rush the story
- Do not assume that the reader of the personal statement has seen the rest of the
application

Comments on personal statement #2

-Hemingway Literature and Bullfights in Spain

-biased to one side of the argument but remains very convincing

-example of a personal statement that transcends into an essay

-very limited in declaring future aspirations

- uses compelling figurative language

-debate on criticism of famous Walker Percy essay

-calculate hours approximated to write a personal essay and quadruple it

-personal statements are one of the hardest genres to write

Dr. Bob gets emotional about personal statements.

“We define ourselves by the stories we tell” –Dr. Bob

Meeting adjourned 6:45 pm

Next Meeting: Monday, February 7th 6:00 pm – Lynch Room