The Writing Center is an essential component in the team effort to build writing skills and provides a number of services.

Individual writing conferences: Perhaps the most important job we do is providing a safe and comfortable writing community where students can get feedback on their work and learn strategies for getting started, developing ideas, clarifying, proofreading, and documenting sources. Students like this for several reasons: most importantly, they are able to work in an environment that does not have the pressure of constant evaluation with a grade, so students with high levels of writing anxiety are more comfortable. On a practical level, we are available for a higher number of hours than many professors are, and we provide good quality help. Instructors like this because they often do not have time to give students extra help in particularly weak areas.

Writing-related resources: We have a variety of resources for students to use independently: dictionaries and thesauri, workbooks, handouts and style manuals. Students who are studying for the PRAXIS but are not enrolled in an English course often spend time working through exercises and discussing them.

Working with instructors: We report student visits to instructors (with students’ permission) to keep instructors informed on student initiative and progress.

Helping students help themselves: We provide an opportunity for students who are strong in writing and interested in teaching to serve their work-study or community service hours. They are, in fact, acting as experts, teachers, and counselors to their peers, as well as contributing to the intellectual climate on campus.

How can we help you?