The Learned Competence of Writing Program Administrators

Some lessons learned along the way.

When I first started my graduate work in writing studies, I had an entire course devoted to Writing Program Administration (WPA), which is a field of work that entails running or directing some kind of writing program. Throughout the semester, we delved into what it actually means to do this very important (and often thankless!) work. We studied the different types of writing programs (like first-year writing programs, writing centers, and writing across the curriculum programs) as well as what it takes to make tough calls and align our programming with our values and principles. For example, if we believe in fair and ethical labor practices, how do we navigate the need to staff writing courses in an age of under-paid adjunct labor? If we believe that writing is a social activity learned across time, what does that mean for offering the types of “last minute cram sessions” that some writing centers facilitate?

A little over seven years later, I finished my PhD and sit in my office as a writing program administrator myself, having transitioned to full-time Assistant Director of Writing Across the Curriculum at Miami. In my almost 3 years in this role, there are a whole host of things about administrative work and life that even that course couldn’t prepare me for.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned since then, which I recognize now as a learned competence that takes intentional craft and preparation:

1.   Working meetings are essential. I don’t know how anyone fields 5+ meetings a day and completes all of the prep work needed for most of these meetings. I’ve found that, when possible, having working meetings where we not only discuss the things we’re going to do but actually do them help me get way more done. I’ll make that google form instead assigning myself to do it later; I’ll edit and revise the survey questions right there as we’re talking about them. I’ve tried to bring this practice to every group I’m part of because it really does make me more productive.

2.   Early mornings are my most productive times. I’m a bit of a strange person in that I wake up in the 5 o’clock hour every day after having grown up on a farm, but this practice has enabled me to be hyper productive and efficient in the mornings. I get to my office by 7am most mornings and complete probably half of my day’s to-do list by 10am. This allows me to attend all the meetings and to facilitate my workshops while still having done my planning. I fit in other work during other pockets of the day, but I always have my 7-9am “power hours” to buckle down and get serious. (There are, of course, some days where I need to be on campus later in the day, so to protect my work-life balance, I then adjust and come into the office later, which is sad for my “power hour”).

3.   Unplugging over the weekend actually helps me excel during the week. This one took me a long time to learn, and is something I’m still working on. As a graduate student, I would regularly burn the midnight oil on week nights and on the weekends, but now, I am very strict with my off-hours time. I disabled email notifications on my phone and try me best not to check that account after hours or on the weekends. I also do my best to stop talking about work with my partner when it creeps in (hard to do when we’re both academics!). I still occasionally will complete a task on a Sunday evening if it makes my Monday morning go smoother, but I try to stick to this as much as possible since I really do value my personal life.

4.   The emails never end…but my attention to them can. I now understand why faculty and administrators complain about emails. I seem to get so many more of them now, and I also subscribe to a lot of field-specific organizations and more recently people’s substacks, so my email inbox fills up. It doesn’t have to control your life, though. Melissa Ianetta once visited a class my colleague Liz Wardle was teaching and declared that she no longer proof reads emails because the sheer amount of labor that would be requited with more than double her email workload. I used to be a person who triple-read every email, but after thinking carefully about Melissa’s point, I no longer agonize over them like I once did. I also schedule and block in time throughout the week where I’ll read substack updates or more carefully check out the messages sent from my field’s organizations. It’s all about balance and being careful with your time.

5.   I really like interactive to-do lists. One of our graduate assistants, Emma, introduced me to the wonders of using Google Keep for weekly to-do lists. She showed me how you can designate a color for each day and build in check boxes that you can click to cross out your task as you complete it, which makes me feel productive as I race through my day and my tasks. I also like being able to move a task either up or back in a week as my schedule allows. It’s such a simple thing, but this almost “gamification” of my to-list really works for me.

6.   It’s okay to close my door to focus on work. This is another thing I’ve historically struggled with as an extroverted person, but truly, it’s okay to shut my office door to be fully present and engaged with whatever task I am working on. When I’m writing or doing other research-related work, I need quiet and focus, and it’s okay to take that time for myself. Without it, I wouldn’t get as much done, which would just make it harder for everyone involved.

7.   Don’t overcommit. It’s okay to say no when I really can’t take on another task. Someone I went to graduate school with once received horrible advice from a professor that they should say “yes!” to absolutely everything to gain experience. I can see putting yourself out there, but the longer I’m in this line of work, the more I see that others can take advantage of you and your time and the only one who is fully looking out for you is yourself. So, say “no” to an optional task if you really can’t fit it in. At the end of the day, the institution won’t care if you burn yourself out, so do what you must in order to protect yourself.

8.   Delegating tasks is actually a good thing. I used to struggle with feeling like I had to do everything myself all of the time, but over time, I’ve learned that leaning on my team is really helpful. I ask our data coordinator to create surveys and coordinate RSVPs for me, while I might as our graduate students to get started on a draft of a presentation that I’ll then look over and add to later. It takes a village to do the work that we do. And thank the heavens we have that village.

9.   Reflection is (still) important. Just like we tell our students, so too should we tell ourselves: reflection and metacognition is vital in learning-to-writing-program-administer. How did that meeting/event/email thread go? What worked well? What could we have done differently? How are we feeling about it? I ask myself questions like this on the regular, and also type up more reflective summaries of my semester that I can archive and return to. Reflection is (still) important, no matter what stage you’re at on your writing.

There’s so much more I could say, but I’ve learned a lot about what actually makes writing program administrators get their stuff done. I’ve learned that it’s hard, and that certain times of the year are overwhelming (like the two weeks before the fall semester). But I’ve also learned how to be better at it and at owning my time, and have come a long way from that WPA course the first year of my master’s degree.

Kudos to all of the writing program administrators and your learned competence. Y’all are absolutely rocking it.