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The newly expanded UVic Writing Centre has opened its doors to students at all levels of writing proficiency.
The centre, recently moved to the Learning and Teaching Centre in the Hickman Building, now offers students access to tutors from a wide range of disciplines, along with workshops on grammar, essay writing and other topics. It also provides increased support specifically for graduate students and students whose first language is not English. This expanded mandate is preparing the Writing Centre for its role as part of the Mearns Centre for Learning when it opens in spring 2008.
Students can go online and book one-on-one 25-minute appointments at the Writing Centre with one of a dozen tutors from the faculties of education, fine arts, humanities, science and social sciences. Tutors are trained to take a developmental approach to student learning, helping them make clear academic arguments by, for example, identifying patterns of errors and clarifying the organization of their writing.
Dan Harvey, a graduate student in the Cultural, Social and Political Thought Program, is excited to be working as a writing tutor. “Being a tutor and helping people with their writing is very satisfying,” says Harvey, who plans to pursue a PhD and teach at the university level. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the variety of students coming in; instead of just seeing first- and second-year undergraduates and international students, we’ve had a number of upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from a mixture of disciplines.”
One of the students who have visited the new Writing Centre is Mohammad Nasser Jahani Asl, a PhD student in sociology. “I’m learning a lot from them,” Jahani Asl says. “They are very respectful people, very patient and friendly. They encourage you.” Jahani Asl was born in Iranian Kurdistan and Kurdish is his first language. In school he had to study in Persian and Arabic, and he has also learned Turkish and English. “I still haven’t mastered English at the level I wish, but I am always working to improve it,” he says.
Laurie Waye, Writing Centre coordinator, has long been interested in language learning and writing development. “My experience teaching first-year composition and working with students for whom English is an additional language provides me with the pedagogic tools useful in creating a supportive and educational environment for both students and the tutors themselves,” Waye says. She is currently researching academic writing development for international graduate students who have English as a second language.
For more information about the Writing Centre, visit their website at http://ltc.uvic.ca/servicesprograms/twc.php.
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