New Pitt-Bradford journal features first-year writing

 The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford has launched a new online publication that gives first-year students an opportunity to have their writing published.

            Founded by composition instructor Matthew Salvia, Bradford Writes! features exemplary student essays in a number of genres typically required of first-year students – narrative, analysis, argument and research.

            “There’s a lot of research in composition theory that students are much more likely to apply themselves to their work if it’s for more than a grade,” Salvia said.

            With the help of faculty in the composition and first-year seminar programs as well as the Writing Center at Pitt-Bradford, Salvia solicited submissions from students. After selecting items to publish, he worked with the students through an editing process.

            Salvia said students’ works come from Introduction to Composition, Composition I and Composition II.

            Salvia hopes that by being published early in their college careers students will pursue additional opportunities to publish and present. The journal will be published twice yearly.

            Salvia said that the journal also allows future students to see examples of good first-year writing in each of the selected genres.

            Those published in the online journal include Alannah Allen, a nursing student from Scio, N.Y., who wrote an argument, “Student Athletes and Mental Illness”; Andrew J. Bokulich, a pre-medicine student from Gibsonia, who wrote a research paper, “Is Newer Better? Primary Repair Surgery vs. Tommy John Surgery”; Tara Babal, a psychology student from Furlong, who wrote a narrative, “The First Note and the Last”; Kyron James, a criminal justice major from Philadelphia, who wrote an analysis, “Cultivating an Attitude of Survivorship”; Richie Kotoh, a business management student from Voorhees, N.J., who wrote a narrative, “December’s Awakening”;

Alivia Laird, a pre-medicine student from Bradford, who wrote an argument, “Boiling Point: The Great Issue of Climate Change,” and a research paper, “Music: A Deeper Understanding of the Effects of your Favorite Song”; Osekamso Ogbechie, a mechanical engineering student from Lagos, Nigeria, who wrote a narrative, “Awake Again with Asthma”; Ashley Stein, a forensic science student from Pittsburgh, who wrote an argument, “Extraction: The Environment’s Extinction,” and a research paper, “Free or Felon? Forensic Evidence in Court”; and Torie Wiest, a forensic science student from Elizabethville, who wrote an argument, “Female Medical Bias.”

            A few narrative essays containing personal subject matter were published anonymously. Those published will also have the chance to read their essays at the unveiling of the campus’s literary magazine, Baily’s Beads, at an online event Feb. 3. Those interested in attending should email Dr. Nancy McCabe, professor of writing, at ngm4@pitt.edu, for login instructions.

            Visit Bradford Writes! at www.bradfordwrites.com.