David Elder, assistant professor of writing and rhetoric, presented at the Conference on Community Writing in Boulder, Colo. His presentation discussed the collaboration between the Morningside College Writing Center and Sioux City’s three public high schools.

David Elder, assistant professor of writing and rhetoric at Morningside College, recently presented at the Conference on Community Writing in Boulder, Colo.

His presentation, “College Writing Centers Helping Local High Schools,” discussed the collaboration between the Morningside College Writing Center and Sioux City’s three public high schools. This provided an example for other centers on how to engage their communities.

The collaboration started four years ago after Elder; Leslie Werden, associate professor and chair of writing and rhetoric; and Jeremy Schnieder, assistant professor of writing and rhetoric, helped lead a teacher in-service with local high school English teachers.

The arrangement involves college writing center staff working face to face with individual high school students on both the college campus and in the high schools.

 “One of the biggest benefits is that it gives high school students one-on-one feedback on their writing, which is difficult for high school teachers to give because of the number of students and curricular requirements,” Elder said.

Elder has been teaching at Morningside since 2010. He is the director of the Morningside College Writing Center. Elder received a Walker Faculty Excellence Award from the college in 2012.  He has a doctorate from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.