Dr. R. Bowen Loftin, Texas A&M University’s interim president, will present the awards on December 1.

“It’s hard to imagine anyone deserving this recognition more than Candace,” says UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester, who nominated Schaefer for the award. “She approaches every aspect of her job with unlimited energy, compassion, high standards, and a positive attitude. She’s made the writing center a better place, while never forgetting that people come first.”

Schaefer has worked with college students for 25 years in a variety of settings. Prior to joining the UWC in 2006, she served as the assistant director for Instructional Technology Services at Texas A&M.  Currently working to complete her Ph.D. in higher education administration, Schaefer is researching the faculty perspective on academic dishonesty and has conducted faculty workshops on the topic.

“I’m flattered to be recognized in this way” says Schaefer, “but while this award may have my name on it, I know it reflects the dedication and hard work of the entire UWC team.”

This has been a banner year for Schaefer, who was also selected as a 2009 Fish Camp Namesake. Congratulations, Candace!

APEC @ Texas A&M University from FLS ✰ on Vimeo.

The Academic Peer Educators Conference is sponsored by the Student Learning Center and the University Writing Center. Students representing both departments planned this year’s conference, and SLC tutor Toan Tran filmed the event and put together this video.

Video from the September 25th, 2009 workshop, “Get Lit” with Candace Schaefer

To celebrate, we’re collecting punctuation humor:

• Phonetic Punctuation by Victor Borge
• The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks
• The Abuse of Apostrophes in Everyday Life
• Atrocious Apostrophes

Or are you avoiding writing a dissertation?

According to The New York Times, half of all graduate students drop out of their degree programs before completing their dissertations.

To keep you from becoming part of that sad statistic, the UWC is conducting a series of workshops to help you navigate the dissertation process.

The first workshop, Get Lit! Writing a Literature Review, will be presented by UWC Associate Director Candace Schaefer from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Friday, September 25 in room 204E of Evans Library. Participants will learn how to organize sources, integrate source material into their text, and limit or expand the scope of their literature review.

Register for the Get Lit! workshop »

Future workshops will cover drafting abstracts, avoiding plagiarism, writing your conclusion, and preparing for your oral defense.

Video from our July workshop, Their Cheating Hearts, is now available.

Matt Fry, director of the Aggie Honor System Office, leads a discussion of how to proceed if you suspect a student has plagiarized.

Thursday, May 14: 9am – 5pm
Friday, May 15: closed
Saturday, May 16: closed
Sunday, May 17: closed
Monday, May 18: 9am – 2pm
Tuesday, May 19: 9am – 3pm
Wednesday, May 20: 9am – 3pm
Thursday, May 21: 9am – 2pm
Friday, May 22: closed
Saturday, May 23: closed
Sunday, May 24: closed
Monday, May 25: closed (Memorial Day holiday)
Tuesday, May 26: 9am – 2pm
Wednesday, May 27: 9am – 2pm
Thursday, May 28: 9am – 2pm
Friday, May 29: 9am – 2pm
Saturday, May 30: closed
Sunday, May 31: closed

Our regular summer schedule, also in the Evans Library only, will begin June 1:

Monday – Thursday: 9am – 8pm
Friday: 9am – 2pm
Saturday – Sunday: closed

The West Campus Library location is closed until the fall semester.

At the end of your first semester at the UWC, you will be certified as a writing tutor by the College Reading and Learning Association. At that time, you may choose to work at the UWC or to train one more semester and work with classes as an Undergraduate Writing Assistant, preferably in your major or a related area.

As a writing consultant you will be required to:

• Attend an 8-hour training session in the week before school starts, or shortly after, in the fall and spring.
• Attend a weekly staff meeting on Wednesdays from 8:15 am to 9:00 am.
• Take a one-credit class in your first semester on Wednesdays from 9:00 to 10:00 am.
• Take a not-for-credit web-based class in the second semester IF you decide to work as a writing assistant.

To apply for the position, please send a completed application, a writing sample, and a letter of recommendation from a faculty member in your major to uwc@tamu.edu. Please limit your submission to 20 pages; excerpts are acceptable. Name your writing sample with your last name (i.e. Smith.doc). Once these materials are received, we will consider you for an interview.

• Why 90% of submissions are rejected based on the cover letter alone
• The single most reliable—and free!—resource for finding a good agent
• Three common, yet easily avoidable, mistakes writers make
• A proposal’s true purpose (hint: it’s not to demonstrate talent)

WHEN: Thursday, March 26, 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Visual Arts Gallery, Second Floor of Memorial Student Center

For more information, contact Elise Elliott.

Professor Karen-Beth Scholthof, of the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology

The $3000 award, funded by the University Writing Center and administered by the Center for Teaching Excellence, was presented to Scholthof in November in a ceremony at the J. Wayne Stark University Center Galleries.

Scholthof encourages students to use writing as a path to discovery, asking them to write critical analyses of readings about the impact of disease on human history.

Scholthof works hard to earn her students’ trust: “I want them to know they have permission to have opinions about what we red. Whatever they write, I’ll read it and take it seriously.”

She uses a rubric in responding to student papers, but offers extensive comments as well. This past fall, she also began incorporating peer review into her class and was pleasantly surprised by how well students took to it. Some students even took the initiative to get extra feedback from peers because they found it so helpful.

Students also surprised Scholthof by objecting when she dropped a requirement that they read part of the rough draft aloud to their peer reviewers: Scholthof worried that reading aloud was too time-consuming, but her students disagreed, saying it was a valuable way to find problems in their writing.