Blog 22 Writing Center Philosophy

Writing Center Philosophy

My WC will be located in a strategic point of the University. This place should be near the other buildings, and in a place where students commonly are. I actually was considering settling it near the cafeteria. The director of the WC must be a well prepared person, with language and writing knowledge. It must be a person willing to help students who visit the writing center to improve their work as well as their writing skills. He has to have a high acceptance for diversity and must be capable to manage people from different cultures and with different backgrounds, and open-minded person that respect different opinions. He needs to be a responsible and dedicate person who enforce the guidelines of the writing center.

The writing center staff will be conformed of teachers (experts) and students (peer tutors) from all over the world if it’s possible. A multicultural team will be formed. We expect to have people from different countries and that speak different home languages, so in this way many students can be helped. Attitude is very important, so the people working here must have the best attitude for serving. They´ll also need to have some other skills such as being good for listen other people, patient, flexible and tolerant. Team work will be encourage and used as our best strategy to achieve success. Peer tutors and teachers should work together to give the best service. We would propose students from different majors so the WC can cover as many topics and kind of texts as possible. Both teachers and tutors need to be able to respond to the writer’s individual needs. Training programs will be part of the WC routine to have more prepared tutors.

The WC will have a website that will include information that students may need. Here they would find the tutors profile that would include their background (language spoken, major, skills, areas of experience etc.) so the student can choose the tutor that best fits their needs. In this website students will be able to do their appointments online, and when doing their appointment the must include what the paper/assignment is about, in this way the tutor can be prepared for the session. Teachers and professors from all the courses given at the university had to upload their syllabus in the WC website, so they can be available in case a student or a tutor in the WC needs it for the session.

This WC would count with its own library, so students and tutors will have more material to work with. Computers with internet will be available in each cubicle so students and tutors can use them during the sessions. The WC will have 2 types of cubicles Individuals, and for groups. The individual will have one table, one computer, and two chairs. The group cubicles will have a big table, at least 5 chairs, and a smart board.

As in all institutions, some rules need to be followed. Sessions will last one hour when they are done at least one day before the session and there will be only 15 minutes of tolerance. Once the 15 minutes had past the session will be cancel. This is a way to make students more responsible. Students that came to the writing center for a session on that same day can have a session only if a session was canceled because another student did not show up and these sessions will only last 45 minutes.

Thanks to the University, the staff, and the training programs, different writing styles and methods can be taught depending on the writers ´needs. We will work very hard to show students that this WC is more than just a place where you can go when you have a paper due.