Each year the UW Interdisciplinary Writing Program hires graduate students to serve as Writing Link instructors. This is a Teaching Assistant appointment. The Writing Link teaches an English 197, 198, or 199 (Interdisciplinary Writing for Humanities, Social Science, or Natural Science, respectively) class that is linked to one of our large undergraduate sectioned courses. The students in the English 197-8-9 class are required to enroll concurrently in the specified History course. The Writing Link teaches expository writing based on material presented in the History class. Assignments include drafts of papers to be submitted in the History class, and other pieces of analytic prose. The Interdisciplinary Writing Program runs orientation and training sessions for the Writing Links from the various departments which participate in this program.
Writing Link Instructors hold half-time appointments (20 hours per week) which provide a monthly stipend, health insurance, a waiver of the operating fee portion of tuition (i.e., tuition minus student fees), and a waiver of the technology fee. Recipients are required to pay student fees of approximately $400 per quarter. This appointment is administered through the English Department. All Writing Link Instructors are considered Academic Student Employees and, as such, are represented by UW/UAW.
The appointment of Teaching Assistants is based on the University of Washington's Executive Order 28 on graduate student appointments. Generally, the University requires that applicants demonstrate high achievement in their fields of graduate study and the potential for excellence in teaching, research, or other activities related to the appointment.
To fund as many graduate students as possible and to ensure that appointees proceed expeditiously toward the completion of their degrees, the Department of History normally does not allow Teaching Assistant Appointees to hold concurrently any other graduate student service appointments (TA/RA/SA) or comparable fellowships during the tenure of their awards.