UWC adapts to meet student, faculty needs

At the University Writing Center (UWC), we believe in revision. We’re forever advocating that writers reexamine, rethink, and restructure. Over the past few months, we’ve been taking our own advice and undergoing some “revisions” of our own. Currently, we’re renovating our facility, staffing a newly opened UWC branch office, helping unprecedented numbers of students both at the UWC and in the classroom, and offering innovative new services to faculty members. All of the changes are designed to help us accomplish our mission of improving writing and writing instruction at Texas A&M.

Satellite center open on West Campus

In the past, students wanting a face-to-face writing consultation had to make their way to the second floor of Evans Library, where the UWC has been located for the past several years. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always convenient or even possible for those students who have most of their classes on West Campus. But now there’s an alternative: the West Campus branch of the UWC, which opened earlier this semester.

This new UWC branch is located in Room 205 of the West Campus Library. Currently, clients there are seen only on a walk-in basis, although they soon will be able to make appointments online or by phone.
According to UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester, the West Campus center is all about convenience: “We want our services to be easily accessible. We already have an Online Writing Lab, or OWL, for students who want to submit papers online, and that gives our clients much more flexibility. But some students find they get more out of a face-to-face consultation. Now they won’t have to leave West Campus for that service.”
The UWC plans a grand opening for the new facility in the spring.

UWAs continue W success

Now in its second year, the Undergraduate Writing Assistants (UWA) program offered by the UWC continues to be a unique way to give writing help to students. The pilot program places specially trained undergraduate writing consultants directly into W courses, where they work with the instructor and students. UWAs can hold office hours for student consultations, assist faculty members with the design of assignments or rubrics, offer brief lectures on writing topics, and comment on students’ drafts.
Instructors interested in having a UWA in their W course should contact UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester at v-balester@tamu.edu.

Workshop on assessment set

The University Writing Center and the Office of Institutional Assessment will host a workshop on assessing writing on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007, as part of Texas A&M’s annual assessment conference. The workshop will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. in Evans Library. Teresa Flateby from the University of South Florida will be the workshop instructor.
“This event will be helpful to our faculty members, especially those new to teaching writing,” says UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester. “Not only will this tool allow us to assess writing in individual classes, but it also can help us evaluate the broader effectiveness of our writing program.”
Workshop registration is limited to 50 participants with 25 seats reserved for A&M faculty. Registration will remain open until all seats are reserved and a wait list has been filled. To register, click to www.writingcenter.tamu.edu/workshops/assessment.

Classroom visits in high demand

This fall the UWC staff conducted a record number of classroom workshops. The workshops feature UWC consultants conducting a lesson on one of four topics: understanding grammar and punctuation, citing and documenting sources, avoiding plagiarism, or mastering the stages of the writing process. With at least three weeks’ notice, the UWC also can create custom workshops to suit the needs of a particular W course.   
“The workshop is intended as a supplement to the writing instructor’s own teaching about writing in that discipline,” observes UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester. “The insight of a practitioner in a specific field is crucial to the success of students learning to write in that discipline. But not every instructor is comfortable teaching all aspects of writing. Instructors are also sometimes curious to see how someone else covers the material.”
While the workshops are open only to W course instructors, any instructor can request a presentation that outlines UWC services. To request a workshop, click on “Request a Classroom Workshop” under the Faculty and Advisors’ tab on the UWC Web site: www.writingcenter.tamu.edu.

Work goes on amid construction

For the past couple of months, consultations at the UWC have been punctuated by the sound of electric drills and pneumatic nail guns as our facility on the second floor of Evans Library undergoes expansion.
The renovations include the creation of a fifth consultation room, the reconfiguring of administrative offices, and the building of a new conference room that will provide space for both UWC staff meetings and work sessions with faculty.
“Space is always at a premium in university libraries,” notes UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester, “so we’re very grateful to the library for giving us this additional space. Although we’ve only occupied our current office for three years, we’ve grown rapidly, and this addition will allow us to serve both faculty and students more effectively.”
Throughout the project, the UWC has remained opened for business, serving more students than ever before.
“We’ve had to conduct some of our consultations out in the library’s current periodicals space, but our clients don’t seem fazed by that,” says Balester, who also notes that while her staff has been good-humored about the renovation’s many inconveniences, everyone will be glad to be settled in the newly refurbished and expanded space.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of fall semester.

Schaefer develops WebCT modules

To assist faculty teaching writing, UWC Associate Director Candace Schaefer is compiling WebCT writing instruction modules that instructors can download for use in their courses. The modules will be available in a variety of formats (PDF, Flash, or HTML) to accommodate instructor preferences.
The instruction modules will cover topics such as audience analysis, tone, prewriting, and revision. Most of the information is being adapted from existing pages on the UWC’s Web site, but Schaefer also can create custom modules to suit individual W course instructors. She can even create interactive features, such as quizzes.
“These modules are easy to install and work seamlessly with the features WebCT already provides,” Schaefer says. “This is a pilot project and I’ll gather users’ feedback as these tools are deployed into writing courses.”
For more information on the project, contact Schaefer at cschaefer@tamu.edu.

UWC creates discussion list

The UWC has created an email discussion list for instructors to share ideas and pose questions to each other. The list is voluntary and any faculty teaching writing can join. “This is a free forum for building a community of writing instructors,” says UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester. To join, contact uwc@tamu.edu.