Western's Writing Center is a place where all members of the campus community can go for assistance in improving their writing skills. The Writing Center is staffed by students who are trained as writing center tutors. While primary emphasis is placed on student writers, all of the campus community, indeed all writers, are welcome. As we imagine the Writing Center to be more of a writer's center, our interdisciplinary focus is on bettering the skills of individual writers, not on producing "perfect" papers.
Therefore, we neither write papers for students nor proofread, edit, or otherwise "pre-grade" drafts that writers bring to us. Instead, we offer aid in improving the writer's abilities as a writer, using the writer's ideas, questions, and drafts as starting points for accomplishing this end.
Generally, the Writing Center's approach to writing seeks to help writers recognize and use the strengths in their writing and to recognize and improve their weaknesses. Tutors help writers foster critical thinking skills, refine organizational skills, adapt to audience expectations, and heighten expressions of individual creativity.
Specifically, the Writing Center offers:
- One-to-one conferences (which are individualized to the writer.)
- Group workshops (which might address common problems in punctuation and grammar, help writers craft strong thesis statements, or introduce effective methods of organizing drafts and supporting assertions.)
- Reflective listening.
- Inspiring, writer-tutor interaction based on Socrates' inductive approach to learning.
As tutoring calls for an individualized approach to each writer's needs, the Writing Center tutors either play the role of cooperative workshop readers or sounding boards. In all cases, the tutors are here to help students articulate, clarify, and shape their own ideas. In general, we operate under the rule that principles of good writing are elicited from the writers rather than given to them.
This is what we hear . . .
Writing a paper can be very stressful, and having experienced tutors to help clarify and focus your work is and invaluable asset, bringing both peace of mind and improved writing skills.
Theo Burgevin, Wildlife Biology
I am extremely grateful for the Writing Center at Western State College. The Writing Center has helped me to identify my specific writing problems such as fragments and tense issues. The tutors at the Writing Center work patiently with me while I try to identify my writing problems myself and they answer all the questions that I have. I believe that my writing has improved from the first day I came to Western.
Erin Okamoto, History