The Writing Center At Union Institute & University

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.”

I need to improve my writing skills. I am going to take a class on composition and go to the Writing Center more often

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.

In Dan Berrett’s article, “Students Come to College Thinking They’ve Mastered Writing,” the idea of freshman thinking they are or must be a refined writer is discussed. Students may think this way coming into college, but their teachers do not. While students might feel satisfied and think that they are prepared with their writing skills, professors found that these students did not necessarily meet the expected level (Berrett 1). Many students reported that they would normally write around 25 hours every week. They said that most of those hours of writing was for more formal purposes like passages to make changes in society (Berrett 1). It was found that one reason the new students might feel this way is that their assumptions about writing differed greatly from those of faculty members and their expectations. One big thing that students will not get for a while, is that good writing is not just listed as a bunch of steps one is to follow that automatically make one’s writing good. Good writing requires one to be in different mental states; it requires the understanding of how to write for different audiences and different reasons (Berrett 2). Berrett includes in the article that writing is not just universal and that in order to do very well, writers must use different forms of writing specifically for their purpose (2). It seems as though students think that, before they even take a class, they are supposed to know everything about writing; in reality, they are supposed to learn new skills and enhance others (Berrett 2). Berrett says that many believe the schools these students previously attended with their test focus might cause these feelings about writing (2). Berrett ends his article by saying that students these days do not think that informal writing actually counts as writing, and that students should practice writing for informal purposes because it can help them (2). Even if they feel like it, students are not fully prepared to write in all contexts when they arrive at college.

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.

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.

Murray is insightful not only to instructors but also to learners. Murray argues that the challenge facing writing is the fact that teachers have treated it as a product rather than a process and the same concept passed on to students. The author holds that the main problem with this view is that students get to receive irrelevant criticisms that are not related to their learning goals. While I tend to agree with the author based on the arguments presented, it is notable that Murray has paid little attention to the idea of education in the contemporary world. In most learning institutions, the outcome of the writing is considered more than the process. As a teacher paying attention to the process of writing but not be consistent with the students, who are mostly driven by

In the article “Best Practices in Teaching Writing”, Charles Whitaker outlines eight points on helping students succeed as writers. The first

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

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.

When I started to work at the Writing Center, I had about eleven years of experience in tutoring English as a foreign language to non-native English speakers in Germany. The experience I had gained from that proved to be very helpful.

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