Welcome, Guest Speaker!
Thank you so much for your interest in the Public Writing Initiative! We're thrilled to have you on board (or potentially on board), and this page should provide you with some key bits of information about our single-day programs that match you, as an experienced community professional, with complementary 202 classes for what we hope is an enriching experience for both parties.
What You'll Do
As a guest speaker for PWI, you'll be paired with an appropriate 202 class - depending on your profession, you'll be speaking to a social sciences, humanities, technical, or business-oriented writing class. All you have to do is devise a way to communicate to the students how you use writing on a daily basis. To this end, you might consider some of the following questions:
- How exactly do you use writing on a daily basis? Why and how is it important to your career, and your success?
- To whom do you need to communiscate effectively? How do you go about doing that?
- How might you convey the importance of writing in your daily life to a group of students that, typically, have little to no idea of how they will be expected to use writing in their future careers?
You may use PowerPoint, handouts, in-class activities, or simply your charming personality to get your message across - as long as it fits within the span of an hour, you're good to go! Our students have responded overwhelmingly favorably to guest speakers in the past; it's a wonderful opportunity for them to see "writing at work" - literally. So thank you for your generous committment! Keep reading to see how this all pans out.
The Process
Let Us Know: First, you can start off by Contacting Us and letting us know you're interested. Include your career field and your particular area of expertise so that we can better match you with an instructor whose students would be most responsive to your particular talents. Also, if you can, send us a list of your available hours - that way, we don't schedule you to speak in a class that meets at a time when you can't be there!
Set Up a Date: Then, once we've paired you up with an instructor, you'll work directly with the instructor to set up a speaking date - perhaps there's a unit the instructor is teaching that matches up with your interests particularly well, or other considerations.
Go To Lunch!: Most times, you won't know the instructor prior to us matching you up, so with the help of a PWI coordinator and a Penn State purchasing card, we'll meet for lunch and discuss the specifics of your visit - you'll get to meet the PWI staff member that you've been working with, and the instructor whose class you'll be visiting.
The Class Itself: You'll present to the class, have a Q&A if possible, and feel excellent for helping out an instructor and a class full of students that are nearly on their way into the big, bright world.
That's It!: You're all finished. We'll collect feedback from the instructor and his/her students, and pass it on to you. Then we'll ask you to come back next semester for a repeat performance! Usually we keep our speakers on for as many semesters as they're in town - hopefully you'll have a good enough experience that we can count on the same from you. Thank you so much again for your time and generosity, and always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to Contact Us.