Summer of Writing FAQs

Advanced Writing Tutorials will provide returning students an opportunity to focus intensively on their critical or creative writing across the summer. Each tutorial will be led by one faculty member, who will supervise three students, grouped (as much as possible) according to field interests. Each student will be working independently (12+ hours per week) on a critical or creative project that is grounded either on a paper or creative piece, or an area of study, pursued in a prior Bread Loaf course or on a completed Bread Loaf Teacher Network (BLTN) exchange.

This work will be supported by individual and tutorial sessions totaling approximately 6 hours per week. Faculty will work with their groups to identify the best times and venues for “meeting.” Though students may need to do some limited research, internet access permitting, they will concentrate primarily on their writing, using that as the medium for refining and expanding ideas that they’ve already begun to explore. The target is to produce a polished piece or portfolio of 6,000 – 8,000 words.  

The Advanced Writing Tutorial will count as two units of credit in the distributional group or groups in which the original course was listed or cross-listed. BLTN projects will count as Group 1 (Writing, Literacy, and Pedagogy). Students may use work done in courses in any group – including Group 6 (Theater Arts) –as the basis for the tutorial.  Please contact the BLSE dean or associate director if you have questions about the group designation of your tutorial project. 

First-Year Tutorials in Critical Writing, designed primarily for starting students, will provide an excellent introduction to critical writing and so to graduate study generally.  Each tutorial will be led by a Bread Loaf faculty member and will consist of a student group of five. The professor will set a series of weekly writing assignments that are based on short readings (to be provided digitally) as well as other kinds of prompts. These assignments, short and long, will give students practice in essential strategies for launching and sustaining a successful critical inquiry – from setting the research question and establishing the argument’s frame; to integrating close readings, contextual information, and other forms of evidence into the exposition; to building powerful sentences, paragraphs, and transitions; and other such. Students should expect to spend 5+ hours a week working independently on their writing. This work will be supported by individual and group tutorial sessions totaling approximately 3 hours per week.  Faculty will work with their groups to identify the best times and venues for “meeting.”

The First-Year Tutorial in Critical Writing will count as one unit of credit in Group 1 (Writing, Literacy, Pedagogy), an elective. Though new students are therefore limited this summer to taking only half of a standard course load, students in good standing may apply to take a one-unit overload in a subsequent summer, so to complete the degree in five (or even four) summers:  options include taking a third course or completing an Oxford Independent Tutorial, an Independent Reading Project, or a Summer Project in Theater Arts.  

The session will run from June 29 to August 5, 2020. Tuition will be charged at the rate of $3085 per unit of study; there will be no room and board or facility fees.

Advanced Writing Tutorial (two unit) $6170

First-Year Tutorial in Critical Writing (one unit) $3085

Independent Research Project (one unit) $3085

If you would like to register for a First-Year Tutorial in Critical Writing or an Advanced Writing Tutorial, you will need to complete a Tutorial Registration Form. Those who register the soonest will have the best chance of being placed with faculty and peers with the same field of interest. Please do not contact professors directly - the Bread Loaf office will handle registration.

Due to strong interest in our Summer of Writing offerings, we are extending our May 6 deadline for registration. While we ask students to submit their tutorial registration forms early, and by May 15 if possible, we will continue to accept applications and enrollments as space permits until the end of May.

Please review these FAQs carefully - they may contain answers to your questions. If, after reading through the FAQs, you have remaining questions, please send them via email to blse@middlebury.edu. Staff are working remotely, so please note that you may experience a delay in response.

Notify your campus coordinator if you decide to cancel for the summer, and we will initiate the refund process with the bursar. Students who have already cancelled will also receive refunds.

Bread Loaf will continue to offer need-based financial aid. If you have already received and accepted your aid award, it will be adjusted to reflect the new, tuition-only fees. In such instances, you will not need to re-accept your award. If you have already applied for aid but have not yet received your award notification, you will be notified shortly about your award; you will not need to re-apply. 

Please note that the Student Financial Service office’s calculation of expected family contributions will not change – only the cost of attendance. Please also note that your aid will only be adjusted or awarded once you have indicated your intention to enroll. The Student Financial Services office will be available to answer your questions via email at sfs@middlebury.edu. 

Bread Loaf will also award a limited number of fellowships and scholarships. If you have already applied for a special funding opportunity, there is no need to re-apply. We will adjust awards based on the tuition-only fees and the number of units of study for which you are enrolled. If you have not yet applied for a fellowship or scholarship, you may apply through April 29^th.

Yes, but applications already in process will get first priority.

Yes, you can re-enroll for a summer writing tutorial if you had previously cancelled from the 2020 session. You do not need to resubmit your aid application, but please write us at blse@middlebury.edu to let us know so that we can notify the aid office to adjust your previous award.

Yes, if tutorial space permits. We will be prioritizing registration of currently enrolled students, but you may submit a re-enrollment form and the Tutorial Registration Form to be added to a waiting list.

Yes. We will continue to accept applications from new students through the end of May as space permits.

Yes. Returning students will be able to complete two units of Bread Loaf study, the standard credit load for a summer, as well as complete an IRP that is already in progress. While first-year students may enroll only in a one-unit tutorial, students in good standing will have the opportunity in subsequent years to supplement the standard load by taking on an additional course or independent study.

Yes.

First-year tutorials will count for Group 1 credit (elective). Advanced Writing Tutorials will count for the Group in which the paper/project is based. Students who are unsure how, then, to meet degree requirements should consult with Emily or Lyndon. 

You need not ground your project simply in the field of a prior course; you can also pick up other foci of the course  — such as a genre, a theoretical approach, or a literary relation. So, for example, suppose you have never taken a Group 3 course but need one, and you’ve concentrated on, say, sonnets in an early modern literature course: you could build a writing project around the sonnet in the 19th century.  The point — as for our Independent Reading Projects — is for you to delve into something for which you already have some base so that you’re not coming in “cold.” Emily and Lyndon are on hand if you need help imagining what to do. 

As a returning student, you may request to register for the one-unit First-Year Tutorial in Critical Writing as your only course. We will be prioritizing first-year student enrollments in the First-Year Tutorials, but will add returning students to a waiting list and register them as space permits. Returning students may not take a First-Year Tutorial in Critical Writing in addition to the Advanced Tutorial, and therefore may not take three units in summer 2020 unless they are already engaged in an IRP.

Students enrolled in the Advanced Writing Tutorials will be grouped together — and with a faculty member — by field of interest. Yes, please: if there is a specific professor you’d like to team up with, let us know (there will be space for this in the Tutorial Registration Form) and we’ll do our best to accommodate your request, though we cannot make any guarantees. First-year students will be assigned a faculty member. Please do not contact Bread Loaf faculty directly.

IRPs will continue in 2020 as planned: students will “meet” with their advisors remotely, doing what they together agree to do to bring the project successfully to completion. Students may elect to take the IRP in tandem with an Advanced Writing Tutorial or to complete only the IRP. OITs will not be offered this summer. 

Professors and students will work together to establish “meeting” times and venues that are accessible to all.

You can opt to take a break from Bread Loaf study for summer 2020, returning to campus for your final two units in summer 2021. You can also elect to take the one-unit First-Year Tutorial in Critical Writing in summer 2020 (space permitting) and return to campus in summer 2021 for one or two units. Please note that at the Vermont campus, students may only live on campus if they are registered for a full two-unit course load.

Participants located outside the U.S. who will join the program from abroad will not need a U.S. visa status to enroll in courses offered remotely. Individuals located in the U.S. may participate in courses delivered remotely, if their visa status allows for full-time study in that format. Anyone who is unsure about their status should confirm with the sponsor of their visa (their school or employer) or an immigration attorney.

You have two weeks prior to the first day of the session (June 29) to return your books. Do so to: go to https://bookstore.mbsdirect.net/vbm/middlebury.htm. You may need to type Middlebury College into the search bar. Click on Middlebury College. Once on the Middlebury buying home page, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on “hassle free returns.”

No. Any required reading will be provided by faculty members or readily available online.

Yes, there will be virtual BLTN meetings. If at all possible, we will hold them on Thursdays at 7 pm EST during the session; however, we are aware that time zones will be an issue, and we’ll work with everyone to make sure our meetings are accessible.

No, only students who are already engaged in IRPs in progress may complete these during summer 2020.

We welcome proposals for independent research projects which will be undertaken during the 2020 academic year and completed in the summer session, 2021. Please look here for detailed information about IRPs. If you’re interested in developing an IRP proposal this summer, first set up a meeting with the associate director through Karen Browne. At that meeting, Lyndon will guide you through the proposal process.

Not ordinarily, unless you’ve received special permission from the associate director. You can, however, build an IRP project around related material in the same field, as long as it was generated in a Bread Loaf course.

IRP Proposals are due August 8, 2020 and should be submitted directly to Karen Browne.

At any time, students may request a waiver of the Vermont residency requirement. Though we grant these waivers only rarely, we will take the special challenges of this summer into account, along with other reasons, in making a decision on those requests.