Lawrence Cleary

Lawrence manages the staff and directs the activities of the Regional Writing Centre (RWC). Rhetoric and Composition Studies, Rhetorical Genre Studies, Academic Literacies Studies, linguistic and language teaching knowledge inform his approach to writing and writing pedagogy. Lawrence designs, facilitates and evaluates writing support initiatives in UL and serves as a consultant across Ireland. He also trains and develop tutors and works with academic staff to develop student writing and research.

Key Areas of Responsibility:

1. Administration of the Regional Writing Centre, including its budget, staff, activities and hours of operation
2. Design, development, delivery, assessment and evaluation of Peer Writing Tutor programme: peer tutor recruitment, training (including AW4006 Peer Tutoring in Academic Writing), induction, scheduling, supervision and professional development of RWC peer tutors
3. Design, development, delivery, assessment and evaluation of Writing Across the Curriculum Workshops for students and academic staff, including workshops on writing for academic assessment, PhD Writers’ Week, writers’ groups, and workshops for teachers of writing
4. Organisation of other UL activities around writing: First-Year and Mature Student Orientation and First 7 Weeks writing workshops, How I Write, Ireland interviews, UL’s National Secondary School Essay-writing competition and writing-related President’s Volunteer Award opportunities
5. Organisation of the Regional Writing Centre’s website, including the provision of online resources for writers in academic contexts
6. Supervision of the Regional Writing Centre’s Administrative Assistant: recruitment, administration, training and supervision
7. Research and innovation in writing development regionally and internationally, providing academic leadership on best practice for the development of writing in higher education
8. Dissemination of research in high-quality, high-impact publications, including journal articles in internationally recognised peer-reviewed journals and book chapters in emerging studies in the area of writing, writing pedagogy and writing centre administration
9. Design and development of innovative activities externally, leading and contributing on collaborative projects, developing external links that to ensure the sustainability of the RWC.

Association Membership: The Irish Network for the Enhancement of Writing (INEW), The European Association for the Teachers of Academic Writing (EATAW), The European Writing Center Association (EWCA), The Association of Writing Across the Curriculum (AWAC), Writing Research Across Borders (WRAB) and the National Council for the Teachers of English (NCTE).

Board Member The European Writing Centre Association (EWCA)

Module leader on

• ME6051 Advanced Technical Writing for Engineers for MSc and ME in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering
• AW4006 Peer Tutoring in Academic Writing for the BA in Arts
• “Do you Write like an Engineer?” embedded within the Introduction to Engineering module, ME4001.