The University Writing Center will host a workshop Jan. 10 on how blogs and wikis can be used as tools for teaching writing.

The UWC is administering a pilot program that includes hosting blogs and wikis for W course instructors and their students. The blogs will be powered by a multiuser version of WordPress, and the wikis will be hosted on MediaWiki. The workshop will provide an overview of how those online technologies work and then will offer strategies for incorporating blogs and wikis into W courses.

Wendy Boswell, associate professor of management in the Mays Business School and a Mays Research Fellow, had good reason for wanting to a teach a W course. When her department first began considering how to implement W courses, Boswell quickly agreed to transform her Managing Human Resources course into a writing-intensive one. At the time, Boswell was directing the master’s program in human resource management, a position that gave her many contacts in the business world.

“I know firsthand how poor our students’ writing has been, and I heard a lot from recruiters about that being a huge issue. I saw it myself and knew it was affecting student job placement and long-term careers,” Boswell says.

Texas A&M University at Qatar opened its long-awaited Technical Communications Center this fall, a major step in efforts to enhance oral and written communication skills among engineering students at the Middle East campus.

The Technical Communications Center (TCC) is much like the University Writing Center in that it offers one-on-one help to students who are working on writing projects. But the center takes on a larger role as a language lab for students in Qatar, for most of whom English is a non-native language. Bolstered by staff trained as ESL specialists and by innovative software such as ClarityEnglish, the TCC serves as an academic hub that provides resources for every communications component of the curriculum, be it writing, speaking or basic English skills.

Most instructors, I think, have at least a vague notion of what the University Writing Center’s peer consultants do. I mean, they help students fix their mistakes, don’t they? While it is true that our consultants are good writers themselves and are perfectly capable of editing papers, what they do for students is much more complex. Their practices are guided by the theory that every session should focus on helping clients improve their own writing, because students learn more when they are actively involved in the process.

What that means, then, is that the student determines the scope of the session, within reason. UWC consultants can and do make suggestions about what they think the student needs to focus on, but the student ultimately sets the course. That being said, at times our consultants struggle to engage students in their own writing. Many students are all too willing to give up ownership of their work, passively waiting for the consultant to give their writing form and shape.