That’s our business. We take it seriously.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation like this:

You’re holding a conference with a student to discuss a draft of his next paper. As the meeting ends, you realize you were so busy helping the student clarify his main ideas that you never discussed the paper’s organizational problems or inadequate research.

Or this: You’re grading the first essay exams for your course and realize you have several international students who could use help understanding the basic conventions of academic writing in the United States.

Or perhaps this: You mention in class that papers will need to be documented using APA (or Chicago or MLA or whatever documentation style is favored by your discipline). Several students stare at you blankly, and you surmise they’ve never even heard of this documentation style before.

These are just three examples of times when you’ll likely be relieved to know the University Writing Center (UWC) is here to help your students. The UWC is an important resource for student writers; you’ll want to be sure your students know about its services.

Funded by undergraduate fees, the UWC offers writing help to undergraduates from all disciplines. The center will assist students with any kind of writing project and at any stage of the writing process. Specifically, the UWC provides help to student writers in three key ways:

• Students can go to the student section of our website, where they’ll find handouts on writing topics such as paragraph structure and using quotations. They can also access our extensive webliography, a compendium of online writing and research assistance.
• They can go to our website to submit a brief portion of a paper or ask a specific question through our Online Writing Lab. They’ll typically have a reply from a UWC consultant in twenty-four hours.
• They can make an appointment for a one-on-one consultation with an experienced writing consultant. (The UWC also takes walk-ins, but only on a space available basis.)

Certainly, the one-on-one consultations are at the heart of the UWC’s mission. When your students sign up for a writing consultation, they’ll spend up to 45 minutes with an experienced writer trained specifically to advise and guide students. Our highly professional and dedicated consultants come from a variety of disciplines—chemistry, horticulture, pre-med, anthropology, English. All consultants have been selected because of their writing experience and all are trained to appreciate the unique nature of their role in helping student writers.

What will they do to help your students? Sometimes, consultants are primarily there to listen, acting as a sounding board for the students’ questions. At other times the consultants are the ones asking the questions, encouraging students to move beyond pat answers or oversimplifications. Or they may act as coaches, reassuring tentative writers that their unhappy writing experiences in junior high don’t mean they have nothing to say.

Consultants sometimes act as guides, helping students navigate their way through their research material. They frequently model how to find answers, saying, “I’m not sure I remember the right way to document this source; let’s look it up together.” They even function as diagnosticians, determining that, while a student may say he only needs help proofreading, he also needs help clarifying his thesis. Luckily, consultants also know how to be diplomatic, finding subtle ways to encourage students to reconsider aspects of their writing that need further attention.

Finally, consultants also explain fundamental writing concepts, showing students how to organize their paragraphs or make subjects and verbs agree.

Forty-five minutes isn’t enough time to make any writing project perfect. Nor can UWC consultations possibly cover every aspect of writing: organization, logic, grammar, tone, diction, format, development, research, documentation, and more. What the UWC can do is help your students learn to ask themselves the right questions about their writing and begin to feel confident they can find the answers.

Another integral part of the UWC mission is assisting faculty members with the teaching of writing:

• Faculty members can access the faculty portion of the UWC website to get helpful information on pedagogy, as well as details on the W course requirements and information on how to propose a W course.
• You can request a classroom visit. One of the UWC consultants will give your class a 10-minute presentation about the UWC’s services. Access the center’s website to schedule a visit or to download a PowerPoint presentation to use on your own.
• You can request a consultation with Dr. Valerie Balester, the UWC Executive Director, to discuss effective ways to incorporate writing into your courses.
• You can attend a UWC workshop for faculty, held at various times throughout the year.

For more information about the University Writing Center, visit http://uwc.tamu.edu.