Dear Lehigh faculty,
It is once again the time of the semester when we recruit faculty to participate in the TRAC Writing Fellows Program and, through your involvement, to incorporate peer learning, student-led learning, and write-to-learn pedagogies into courses across the curriculum at Lehigh. A direct result of your partnership with TRAC will be improvement in the quality of student writing. You will also benefit from interaction with students who are increasingly engaged, knowledgeable, and communicative based on their interactions with TRAC Fellows. Learn more about TRAC. And even more.
Faculty requests for TRAC Fellows to contribute to a course in Spring 2026 are due by the end of the day on Friday, December 19th via this Google Form.
What is TRAC?
The TRAC acronym stands for technology, research, and communication. TRAC Writing Fellows are talented students from all undergraduate colleges who work to improve students’ writing in a peer learning environment. In Fall 2025, there are 85 fellows and 24 TRACing faculty.
What does a TRAC Fellow do?
In the fall or spring, faculty at Lehigh agree to have a course TRACed. Individual students or student groups meet with a TRAC Fellow two, three, or four times during the semester to discuss a piece of writing that is central to the course. Each meeting is a conference and conversation between peers. Fellows encourage a meaningful writing process based on collaboration and shared inquiry. A TRAC conference is about listening to another writer; attending to what they wrote; affirming some of their instincts about what is strong or weak within a draft; and sharing experiences about the writing process. Fellows do not grade assignments, fix or line edit a student’s writing, focus on grammar or spelling, or do anything that interferes with peer collaboration and a student’s engagement with revision.
Faculty responsibilities
To facilitate a robust revision process, faculty require the submission of working drafts of all assignments to be TRACed about two weeks in advance of final due dates. This time, which we call a conferencing window, allows students to share their draft with a fellow, for the fellow to annotate the paper, and for the student and fellow to meet, in person, for a writing conference.
Benefits for students in TRACed classes
By creating productive partnerships between Lehigh faculty and highly trained writing coaches, TRAC helps undergraduate students:
- improve the quality of their writing;
- have greater confidence as writers;
- use evidence and develop arguments;
- improve the organization of a draft;
- revisit and better understand a writing prompt;
- spend time on revision;
- deepen analyses;
- generate new ideas;
- develop their research skills; and
- see the strengths and weaknesses of a piece of writing.
Working with a fellow, students will practice habits that lead to better writing and communication skills. They will also learn strategies that are important in college, in their disciplines, and in their careers after graduation.
Learn more
Interested in learning more about TRAC? Visit Lehigh’s Writing Across the Curriculum web page (scroll to “TRAC Information for Faculty”), our TRAC-specific web presence, and watch a student-made video that answers the question: “What is TRAC?” Please reach out to Justin Greenlee at jgg223@lehigh.edu or 610-758-4932 with any questions.
Justin Greenlee, Ph.D. (he/him)
Director of Writing Across the Curriculum
Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning
Library and Technology Services
Lehigh University
Office: EWFM 370C