Writing Center Assists Students From All Majors

No matter the academic major, students quickly discover they have to write papers (many of them!) throughout their experience at Cedarville University. Fortunately, Cedarville's Writing Center is available to assist with all their writing needs!

The Writing Center enjoys a large and relaxing space equipped with comfortable sofas and swivel chairs as well as work tables and tutoring carrels. Here is the place where students can access tutoring on all their writing. If they are working on an outline for a speech, they can come see us. If they're working on essays for scholarship or graduate school applications, they can seek our guidance. And of course, if they're working on one of the dozens of papers they'll be composing as part of their academic experience — whether two pages or 50 pages long — they can make appointments to work with writing consultants who are their peers.

The tutors are excellent writers and communicators from a wide variety of majors, including allied health, biology, business, chemistry, education, English, math, nursing, pharmacy, professional writing and instructional design, psychology, and Spanish. These students are trained to become effective writing consultants in the 3000-level course Writing Center Theory and Training, which is required for all tutors. Thus, they are knowledgeable about effective tutoring techniques and are as adept at working with freshmen in composition as with seniors in capstone courses. In fact, because they recognize the value of discourse and a fresh perspective on their work, they even tutor each other!

They also effectively assist students with special needs and writers who are English Language Learners. The writing consultants truly care about every student who meets with them, and they come alongside each writer, helping develop ideas thoroughly, clearly, and accurately. For that reason, the students who often visit the Writing Center are the same ones who improve the most over time.

The center especially works closely with first-year students, many of whom struggle to adjust to university-level expectations for their writing. Both students who earned A's on essays in high school and students inexperienced with paper-writing find Cedarville's writing assignments challenging. How relieved and excited they are to discover the Writing Center! Their peers are here — the same students they sit with in chapel, eat lunch with in the dining hall, and live beside in the residence halls. So the Writing Center is a welcoming place where students can explore ideas, take risks in their writing, and learn successful strategies for composing complex and effective essays.

Students can visit the center as soon as they get an assignment to start brainstorming ideas, and they can come as often as they want for help on the same paper. Tutors start where the writers are — at the moment an assignment is given, in the midst of writing a draft, or when it is time for revisions. In addition, if students really enjoy their consultant, they can check the schedule online to see when that tutor works again and make the next appointment(s) with that same person. If they live off-campus, students can also access online tutoring through Google Hangouts.

During the initial consultation, the writing tutor will read your student's paper and help set up an agenda for the session to follow. In the next 30 minutes, the tutor will work through that agenda, offering guidance on how to build upon strengths and improve weaknesses. But even at this stage, your student will be actively involved in the conference. Students may "free write" for five or 10 minutes, do some outlining or revising, and even consult a manual.

The Writing Center's place isn't limited to the building in which it's housed, however. Its website also provides many helpful resources. For example, information about the center's mission and objectives, a description of what students can expect from our services, and even directions about how to make an appointment are all on our website.

In addition, the center houses many links to discipline-specific writing guides and documentation styles as well as grammar resources and style tips. Please encourage your student to access these useful resources.

By discussing ideas and goals with a trained tutor who both enjoys writing and understands how to reach an audience, every writer, no matter the level of proficiency, discovers paths toward successful revisions and credible, persuasive writing. This is exactly the kind of help your student can expect to receive at Cedarville University.