Coaching HelpGram Writers
The goals of coaching include the following:
- To make writers better writers by making them aware of issues or errors
in their writing.
- To orient e-tern writers to HelpGram writing.
- To improve the quality of HelpGrams.
To achieve these goals, you'll analyze HelpGrams for the following:
In addition, you should also look for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors,
but we prefer for you to focus on the broader issues, such as organization and
style, that affect the overall presentation of the HelpGram.
During the two-week orientation, each writer in your team will submit three HelpGrams
to you. Thereafter, you'll be responsible for writing 30 HelpGrams and for helping
your team's writers with their writing concerns. So if a writer desires your feedback
and wishes to submit a HelpGram or part of a HelpGram, you'll supply the writer
with feedback by following the procedures in this guide. You must be able to send
and to receive e-mail attachments, so you can receive requests from writers for
feedback and so you can send feedback to writers.
Sometimes a writer may want your general feedback, in which case you'll perform
a comprehensive analysis of the HelpGram. In other cases, writers may just want
advice on specific problems, such as writing a good lead, finding research, making
their writing more concise and conversational etc. In these cases, you'll address
only the writer's concerns. However, if you notice any errors or issues in the
HelpGram that the writer hasn't asked you to address, tactfully bring these issues
to the writer's attention. But if the writer states that he or she hasn't edited
or finished the draft and only desires feedback on a particular issue, then only
address the specific issue that the writer seeks help with.
Coaches must "CC" ALL correspondence between writers and coaches (including
attachments, general questions etc.) to their team's editor and assistant editor
as well as the E-ternship Director. This is for the following reasons:
- The writing coach position is new. Therefore, supplying the E-ternship Director
with your correspondence with writers will help the director expand on and
improve the coaching guide for future semesters.
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- Sending correspondence to editors and to assistant editors keeps them in
the loop and reinforces lines of authority.
- Sending correspondence to editors and assistant editors as well as the E-ternship Director will ensure that writers submit their first five HelpGrams to coaches.
Thoroughly read the next page to learn how to supply writers with feedback.