For Faculty Advisors

The Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) offers two notation programs for Stanford undergraduates in all majors: the Notation in Cultural Rhetorics and the Notation in Science Communication. Through a combination of coursework, advising and reflection, these Notations provide students with the opportunity to earn a special designation on their official transcripts indicating their advanced work in rhetoric and communication.

For more information on the history and goals of the Notation programs, visit the About page.

Notation Advising Details

All Notation students will have an advisor based in PWR as well as an advisor based in their discipline (this can be their current major advisor or a professor in a related field). Notation students will have the responsibility of finding advisors willing to work with them; we hope that faculty approached by Notation students will be open to considering accepting this important advising role.

The Notation faculty advisor will help Notation students in two distinct ways:

First, the faculty advisor will help their advisee(s) select a course that includes a significant communication component (and is NOT the student’s primary WIM course). This course will ideally count towards their major as well as the Notation requirement, though in some cases the selected course may not be a major requirement. Courses should have a significant communication component involving at least one mode of communication (such as a substantial writing assignment or an oral or multimodal presentation) and provide students with the opportunity to create a text that they can include in their final Notation ePortfolio. 

Explore NCR elective course options Explore NSC elective course options

Second, the faculty advisor will, at the student’s request, review the ePortfolio as it develops and engage the student in discussion about the choices the student makes about what to include in the ePortfolio. Ideally, meetings with the advisor will help students make good choices and also encourage reflection on the strengths of individual pieces and the ways the pieces connect to each other.  As the ePortfolio stands as the primary evidence of the student’s learning and will be formally assessed by the Notation committee. More information about portfolios can be found on the ePortfolio Capstone page, and you can explore ePortfolios from graduated students in the ePortfolio Archive.

Questions? Reach out to the NCR (notationcr@stanford.edu) or NSC (notationsc@stanford.edu) teams for more information.