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The Buttrick-Crippen Assistantship provides a full year of support during which the recipient can devote themselves to the study and practice of teaching writing within and beyond the context of their discipline.
Supporting materials should be submitted by January 12, 2026. Applications for the Buttrick-Crippen Assistantship can be found at the Buttrick-Crippen Canvas site.
The Applicant
Open to candidates with an interest in undergraduate writing from any field of the Graduate School at Cornell. Preference will be given to those who are enrolled in a Ph.D. program. The award is intended for graduate students who have had substantial teaching experience.
The Award
The recipient will spend the fall semester preparing a new First-Year Writing Seminar for the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines and will teach that seminar in the spring. In 2026–27 the award will provide a stipend ($35,661 in 2025–26), tuition, and health insurance.
The Application should include:
• a description of the proposed seminar’s focus, the applicant’s interest and background therein, and the applicant’s conception of its place in the Institute and its appeal to undergraduates (particularly first- year students).
• a discussion of the kinds of writing assignments the applicant plans to give.
• the applicant’s plans to relate reading to writing in the seminar, both in discussions and in writing assignments. For example, will some writing assignments be modeled after the kind of writing found in the reading?
• copies of student evaluations, if the applicant has taught a First-Year Writing Seminar before.
• any other information about the seminar and its place in the Institute that the Committee may find helpful and interesting.
• a vita.
• supporting letter(s) of recommendation.
The Criteria
The Committee seeks applications that integrate writing into the study of a discipline. Seminars that fill gaps in the current set of offerings have been the strongest contenders in previous years. Applicants may consult the Institute’s website for listings of the Institute’s current offerings: https://knight.as.cornell.edu
The primary purpose of the proposed seminar should be to help students write good English expository prose—prose that, at its best, is characterized by clarity, coherence, intellectual force, and stylistic control.
The seminar should adhere to a program-wide set of guidelines that includes the following:
• At least four—and at most six—formal essays on new topics, totaling about 20 pages of polished prose.
• No fewer than three of the 4–6 required essays should go through a process of development under the instructor’s guidance (e.g. revision, peer review, responses to readings, conferences).
• All seminars should spend ample classroom time on work directly related to writing.
• Reading assignments in the course subject should be kept under ca. 75 pages per week to permit regular, concentrated work on writing.
• All students should meet in at least two individual conferences with the instructor.
Applicants who have not taught a First-Year Writing Seminar before should expect to take Writing 7100, “Teaching Writing,” in either the summer or fall of 2025.
