The Writing Center At Union Institute & University

While attending writing class, I learned about the 4 steps in writing, bases for revising, organizing, and connecting specific information, and I also learned about the different types of essays such as descriptive, narrative, process, cause and effect and argumentative essay. I have been a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College for 1 semester, and over the course of my enrollment I have grown and learned more that I knew prior to attending this writing course. Participating in this writing class has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me another way of expressing myself. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don 't know. Most importantly I have learned how important technique, outlines and organization are. My goal in this paper is to inform writers about how my writing skills have improved.

University Writing Center (UWC) and Academic Success Center (ASC) are two of the university facilities that help students enrich their academic experience. While UWC assists students in improving their written and oral communication skills through one to one consulting sessions, online resources, and workshops, ASC works to enhance students’ intellectual performance through academic coaching, supplemental instruction, drop-in tutoring sessions, and peer mentoring. Both of the organizations take a collaborative learning approach to encourage students to develop necessary study skills for academic success and increase student retention. ASC offers various student development programs; however, our focus for this proposal will be on drop-in tutoring services offered by ASC.

Upon entering Columbia College, writing was one of my weaker areas. It was very important that I gained the necessary knowledge and confidence to become a better writer. I didn’t know how to express myself and felt as though my writing was not my interest. As a result of taking English 101, I have gained a better understanding on how to properly research and build a satisfactory paper. Every paper that was assigned seemed like a struggle to complete. Before entering this class, I did not know the meaning of a thesis or why it was important, however, I obtained this skill quickly. I noticed that every paper has an argument and the thesis helps clarify the rebuttal. Now, I have a new outlook on writing. It’s a way to express my thoughts and allow others to see things through my eyes. There is no doubt that I still have a long way to go, but I know if I continue to write, I will get better. Just as I developed more skills in class, the various papers assigned helped to better structure the writer in me. In addition, the subject areas were not only interesting, but very informative and made it much easier to write about my experiences.

Within “Rearticulating the Work of the Writing Center” Nancy Grimm asserts that writing centers “be less tuned to helping writers master community conventions and more tuned to developing the capacity of the staff to entertain multiple perspectives, to resist binary alignments, to think in systematic and complicated ways about literacy practices, to manage emotional reactivity, to gather evidence, and to explore the contradictions in literacy work” (Grimm

Sure, we all have that one parent that claims they know how to edit your paper, but oops they forget to spill the beans of how they could barely get above a B on papers themselves. The truth of the matter is writing is tough, and it does not come easy for everyone. For me, I struggle with grammar and just all the logistics that go into paper writing. However, there is a very big and bright light at the end of the tunnel for me. Yes, I will have to take more writing classes at Liberty University, but this time I will actually be able to get legitimate help. Thanks to Liberty University’s Undergraduate Writing Center, I will finally be able to get that writing help that I will need on my papers I will have to write. The writing center offers students the ability to sit down with a coach that will help them through what they are trying to accomplish on paper. Some of these coaching sessions can be in larger groups or can be requested to be one on one. Lessons on how to properly format MLA or APA will also be available at the writing center. For a student like me that does not exactly like writing, these resources will come in very handy. I truly believe that if I need help on a certain paper, then I will go there to make sure I get it. It is something that will give many students an edge over the tough papers that they will have to write as they make their way through

Besides the fact that the writing center is understaffed, there are some challenges faced every day by all writing centers, not just the writing center at NOVA Alexandria. Some of these challenges were mentioned in a paper by Rachel Cooke and Carol Blesdoe, “(1) guiding students through the sequence of the writing process; (2) assisting students who may be uncertain about assignment guidelines; (3) operating under time constraints; (4) empowering students to take charge of their learning; and (5)evaluation of sources for quality and preventing plagiarism.”

Think about your experiences of writing at college. Which types of assignments have you found helpful in strengthening your writing skills? Where do you want to improve your writing? What’s the most useful advice you’re received that’s helped you improve your writing. Be as specific as possible.

During this semester in English 107, I have progressed more as a writer. Before I went to University of Arizona, my writing was rigid. I wrote five-paragraph TOEFL style essay all the time in my high school life. After I attended in English 107, I was not confident about my writing skill. Throughout these three projects we have done, I become more and more confident about my writing skill than before. The Student Learning Outcomes also helped me to grow as a writer a lot. In these goals, I did well on several of them, but I still need to work on the other goals.

As previously discussed, I would like to try to implement a writing program for Lindenwood Belleville campus. I believe that implementing a specific writing program for students to improve their writing, and critical thinking, is crucial to the success of our undergraduate students in their future careers, and the reputation of Lindenwood University.

Students included domestic and international undergraduate, Master’s, and doctoral students, post-docs, and visiting scholars. Above 50 % of students who came to the CSTW were ESL students. Writing genres my students brought covered college compositions, research papers, conference papers and posters, Master’s theses, dissertations, academic journal articles, grant proposals, job required materials, and multimodal texts (e.g., websites, PowerPoint slides, and video clips). Types of writing tutorials contained face-to-face, synchronous, and asynchronous tutorials and semester-long writing groups. I also sometimes trained writing tutors in theories and philosophies of writing centers, strategies to tutor domestic and ESL students in online and face-to-face situations, and issues of giving tutorials in online situations and to ESL students. This work experience enables me to design and teach writing courses for undergraduate and graduate diverse students in the

In Dan Berrett’s article “Students Come to College Thinking They’ve Mastered Writing”, published in the Chronicle of Higher Education on March 21, 2014, the author describes some issues regarding writing that first-year students face. Berrett claims that “the students’ notions about writing” do not meet their instructors’ expectations. I, as a freshman in university, agree with most of the author’s ideas. However, there are flaws in the article, which make it less convincing.

A test of success is when the odds are stacked against you. Inner-city high schools face this problem on a daily basis. When it comes to the formation of writing centers, high schools, especially ones located in America’s largest metropolitan areas, face a plethora of problems. However, by using unique tools and relationships—collaboration between high schools and local universities, choosing the proper tutors, and a unique writing center setting—inner-city high schools across the nation have been able to develop successful writing centers.

Writing Coach – New school year, new attitude, and new repertoire of writing skills that will put you at the head of your class! Writing enrichment and private coaching and tutoring for middle and high school students. I specialize in teaching basic composition, essay, and research writing. Through my coaching you will receive positive encouragement towards reaching your writing goals. You will: learn new writing skills, modify current writing skills, identify and prioritize writing goals, meet deadlines for writing school papers, and learn strategies to overcome challenges encountered in the classroom.

I met with Linda from the writing center on 11/15/15 and here is the feedback that she provided.

Over the course of this past semester, my ability to write has improved tremendously. Prior to undertaking this course, my expertise in writing was not as fine-tuned as it should have been. I had never previously been enrolled in a class specifically tailored to writing-- which was quite clear. Upon reading my past works, it becomes apparent that my writing style consisted of fluff, small words, and inconsistently structured sentences. These problems have, for the most part, been remedied with the coursework I have tackled in College Writing. Rather than long, drawn out papers that take an eternity to reach the primary point, my recent work is much nicer in terms of composition and grammar. I credit these improvements to the three primary