Write on

Center for Excellence in Writing aims to help students pen papers

Even if you're not the next Shakespeare, the University's new Center for Excellence in Writing may be able to help start you on your way.

The University's already existing writing centers are now formally headed by the new center, said Jon Olson, the center's director. The center heads many other tutorial programs in the University's colleges, which Olson said are designed to help students think about their writing, not edit their papers.

Graduate and undergraduate students are trained to work at these tutorial centers, he added.

"This center is kind of conceptual rather than physical," Olson said.

The satellite writing centers are located in 219 Boucke, 2 Health and Human Development East and 109 Fisher Hall.

Next fall, the center will take on the graduate student writing program being developed this semester by Margaret Lyday, associate professor of English and women's studies. This graduate center offers workshops by faculty members on topics such as editing, thesis formatting and English for non-native graduate students, according to the Center for Excellence in Writing.

The writing center also offers a one-credit tutorial class, English 005 (Writing Tutorial), with certain English classes to provide one-on-one instruction for those who need extra help, Olson said.

Students often come in to have papers proofread, but the center is really there to help students find bigger problems within their papers.

"(The tutors) have the students read their papers out loud," said Mike Muhlhauser, a receptionist and a learning skills consultant in the Boucke center.

"If there's problems with the major stuff, the minor stuff isn't important," said Sheela Sinharoy, who works as a peer tutor in the Boucke center. Once the larger problems have been solved, mechanics such as sentence structure and grammar are addressed, Sinharoy said.

"A lot of them just come in for grammar," she said. "What we're trained to do is look for organization."

The center helps integrate writing into classes with a "W" designation -- in which 25 percent of the grade must come from writing assignments, Olson said. The center does this by meeting with professors and discussing how to use writing in their classes, Olson added.

"Writing needs to be connected to the content of the course," he said. "(It) introduces students to the type of writing that goes on in the discipline."

By making the students write, Olson said they are "writing to learn," not simply "learning to write."

Response to the center has been excellent, said Muhlhauser (senior-philosophy and English).

"Where can you find someone who is friendly and intelligent, who will sit with you for half an hour?" Olson said. "You can find that at the writing center."

As for his role in the center, Olson said he likes having the option to teach classes, work at the writing center and also be an administrator.

"This (job) allows me to do everything I've always wanted to do," Olson said.