Services of the Writing Center

by Debbie Paxton
Boise State Writing Center

Introduction
More students learn about the writing center from their instructors than from any other source. Statistics taken from our records prove this. Therefore, we are always trying to make ourselves known to faculty, so that they can pass information about the center on to their students. It's not easy. Faculty on our campus are busy with their own teaching and research, and many other services on campus are vying for attention. Often, instructors call us only after experiencing frustration over dealing with writing assignments and student papers. We hope we can make our services known to more people before the frustration sets in. In this issue, we would like to give a brief overview of the center's services.

In our continuing effort to make the Writing Center more accessible to the university community, we encourage you to inform your students about our services and to assist in the development of student writing at the college. There is a common misconception that the writing center is here only to assist students in freshman composition classes. To the contrary, we work with students from all levels, including graduate students, and some faculty members. We provide assistance in one-on-one sessions called consultations. We can help with writers at any stage, including:

* focusing their topic and/or thesis
* organizing ideas and clarifying thoughts
* drafting and revising papers

Although we do not edit or proofread students' papers, we do teach students effective and efficient strategies for editing and proofreading their own work. We help students not only with class assignments, but also with résumés, employment and graduate school applications, scholarship applications, research papers, both fiction and non-fiction writing, writing about literature, sciences, art, history, social sciences, engineering - all possible subjects.

We have brochures available for you to give each student. They are freely available upon request. We can send these brochures to you at any time; just call ext. 1298 and tell us how many you would like.

History
The Writing Center first opened its doors in the Fall of 1980. In an average year, the writing center sees between 800 and 1000 students, works intensively with 10 - 12 individual classes, and logs approximately 750 hours of tutoring. As the writing center has become known across campus, the number of students we see has increased steadily. In recent semesters, the flow of traffic through our doors has increased considerably. We are busier earlier in the semester than we have ever been.

Purpose
The Writing Center exists as a resource available for all who are interested in developing writing skills across the curriculum. For students, it is a place where they can improve their writing, regardless of the level of development they have achieved, and avail themselves of resources developed by the writing center's staff. For peer tutors, it is a place where they can develop and implement writing pedagogy, and in so doing, develop and strengthen their own writing abilities. For faculty, it is a resource which they can use to supplement their own classroom writing instruction through student referral, requests for the WACRAT program, and dialogue with staff members about writing pedagogy.

Types of consultation - individual and classroom
At the beginning of each semester, you can arrange a classroom visit from a representative of the Writing Center by calling the center (ext.1298) and giving your name, the name of the course, the room, and the time and date you would like someone to visit. A member of our staff will come to your class, introduce and briefly describe the services offered at the writing center, and provide students with an information sheet and schedule of hours. Classroom visits take only a few minutes, and we have found that a visit from the Writing Center is an effective means of getting students to use the Center.

We also have a program called Adopt-A-Class where consultants work with primarily lower division English classes at the beginning of the semester. The program is set up to have one or two consultants sit in on the class during the first week or two of the semester. This usually breaks the intimidation or fear barrier for many students, putting a human face on the center and making them more likely to continue using the writing center on their own.

To make referrals most productive, faculty members are encouraged to remind individuals or groups of the writing center's fundamental premise: that all writers, no matter what their ability level, need the feedback of a sympathetic reader, and that the writing center can provide writers with readers who are knowledgeable about and sensitive to the concerns of writers.

Schedule
The Writing Center is open 49 hours a week.
Monday - Thursday 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Friday - 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Handouts
The writing center has many handouts available to students free of charge. Some of the subjects covered in these handouts are:

Writing Across all Disciplines
Developing a thesis
Resume Writing
Writing a cover letter
Punctuation
ESL Resources
Exploration of a subject
Analysis of a poem, article, play
Practice essays for Praxis exam

We have several reference books and can assist students with a variety of writing issues, from format to content to citations. Our home page has a link titled Online Resources. This link will take you to a list of available online reference sites, including MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian styles of writing, as well as a link to Purdue University Online Writing Lab. The Purdue Online Writing Lab link will lead you to a page of categorized handouts. These handouts include the following categories: General Writing Concerns; English as a Second Language; Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling; Research and Documenting Sources; Professional Writing; and Writing Across the Curriculum.