Co-operative Administrative Assistant, Regional Writing Centre, 

Millie Duffy Sheahan

Millie is the current Co-operative Administrative Assistant in the Regional Writing Centre. She is in her second year of a BA in English and Sociology.

  The main responsibilities of the co-op student will be as follows:

   1. Assist with the maintenance of the daily operations of the RWC.

   2.  Assist with the organisation of RWC activities, including the One Campus, One Book initiative and the National Secondary School Essay-writing competition.

   3. Greet tutees and arrange appointments.

   4. Publicise and promote the activities of the RWC.

   5. Keep accurate records of RWC activity.

   6. Assist with the maintenance of the RWC website for promotional, administrative and didactic purposes.

 7. Assist with the maintenance of RWC literature, including handouts and pamphlets.

 8. Prepare and/or purchase materials needed for the RWC.

T: 061 202581 

E: writingcentre@ul.ie

Director, Regional Writing Centre, University Limerick

Lawrence Cleary (BA English, Illinois State University, 2001; MA ELT, University Limerick, 2003)

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)

Publications:

Cleary, L., & O'Sullivan, Í. (2008). Innovations, activities and principles for supporting students' writing. In Moore, S. (ed.) SEDA Special 24;Section 3, pp. 15-20.

Cleary, L., Graham, C., Jeanneau, C., & O'Sullivan, Í. (2009). Responding to the writing development needs of Irish higher education students: A case study. AISHE Journal: 1(1), pp. 4.1-4.16.

O’Sullivan, Í. & Cleary, L. (2012) Editorial: The role of the student experience in shaping academic writing development in higher education. Journal of Academic Writing: The Journal of the European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing. 2 (1) autumn, pp. ii-iii.

O'Sullivan, Í., & Cleary, L. (2012). The Role of the Student Experience in Shaping Academic Writing Development in Higher Education: The Peer Writing Tutors’ Perspective. Journal of Academic Writing, 2(1), 138-164.

O'Sullivan, Í., & Cleary, L. (2012). Introduction: Peer writing tutors’ narratives 138 the role of the student experience in shaping academic writing development in higher education: the peer writing tutors’ perspective. Journal of Academic Writing; 12(2), pp. 138-139.

O'Sullivan, Í., & Cleary, L. (2012). The Regional Writing Centre at the University of Limerick. In Bräuer, G., Carlino, P., Ganobcsik-Williams, L., & Sinha, A. (eds). Writing programs worldwide: Profiles of academic writing in many places. C. J. Thaiss (Ed.). Parlor Press, LLC., pp. 261-270.

Cleary, L. (2013). Apologia for undergraduate peer-tutors in writing. AISHE-J: The All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 5(1), pp. 1181-1187.

O'Sullivan, I., & Cleary, L. (2014). Peer-tutoring in academic writing: The infectious nature of engagement. Journal of Academic Writing, 4(1), 52-65.

Cleary, L., & O'Sullivan, Í. (2015). The political act of developing provision for writing in the Irish higher education context. In Lillis, T., Harrington, K., Lea, M., & Mitchell, S. Working with academic literacies: Case studies towards transformative practice. The WAC Clearinghouse/Parlor Press.

Cleary, L. (2017) Why good academic writers perform poorly in the workplace: Teaching for transfer across contexts of writing (Part 1 of 2). In WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship, a publication of the International Writing Centers Association. Available at: http://www.wlnjournal.org/blog/2017/10/why-good-academic-writers-perform-poorly-in-the-workplace-teaching-for-transfer-across-contexts-of-writing/

Cleary, L. (2017) Why good academic writers perform poorly in the workplace: Teaching for transfer across contexts of writing (Part 2 of 2). In WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship, a publication of the International Writing Centers Association. Available at: http://www.wlnjournal.org/blog/2017/11/why-good-academic-writers-perform-poorly-in-the-workplace-teaching-for-transfer-across-contexts-of-writing-part-2-of-2/

Cleary, L. (2019). At the Centre of Changing Contexts: A Writing for Life Centre. In Essid, J., & McTague, B. (Eds.). Writing Centers at the Center of Change. Routledge, pp.

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.