By Janelle Henderson
Sophomore Khoa Nguuan has visited the University Writing Center 20 times since he began at U of L.
“I’m bad at writing, so I needed help,” Nguuan said.
The Writing Center began in fall 2000 as a joint venture with the provost’s office and the College of Arts and Sciences when professors saw that students needed help with their writing.
Over the past five years, the Writing Center’s services have expanded to include in-class workshops for students and workshops for faculty and staff members. In-person and online consultations are also available to help with all kinds of writing â?” from scholarship applications to research papers, according to Associate Director Ruth Miller.
Students who aren’t available to visit the Writing Center during their office hours can either e-mail their writing to consultants or arrange an online meeting on Blackboard for a live chat with a consultant.
Unlike other universities, where undergraduate junior- and senior-level consultants typically help lowerclassmen with their papers, the Writing Center’s 10 consultants are first-year candidates for their M.A. in English, a requirement they must fulfill to complete their degree. Eight Ph.D. students supplement the staff as assistant directors.
Since working at the Writing Center, consultant Ali Altaf Mian has encountered common errors that have helped him improve his own writing in his biography, “Muslim Erudition and Wisdom: The Life and Times of Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanawi (1863-1943).”
“It’s improved my writing. When I see people making the same mistakes, I tend not to make the same mistakes,” Mian said.
Assistant Director Tabetha Adkins has enjoyed working at the Writing Center so much she changed her major in her master’s program and has continued her work there during her Ph.D.
“I came here to get an M.A. in Literature, but I fell in love with the Writing Center. I hope to make a career out of this,” she said.
Although the Writing Center advertises through flyers and word of mouth, some students, like Natascha Davis, are unaware of what the Writing Center offers.
“I think people don’t use the Writing Center because the services aren’t advertised well. I knew of the Writing Center, but not of the services they provided,” said Davis, a graduate student in the Kent School of Social Work.
Along with individual writing consultations, students can use computers and print for free. The center also provides research books and handouts detailing proper grammar usage and documentation styles.
But the Writing Center staff wants students to know that it caters to all levels of writers, from freshmen to Ph.D. students.
“The writing center is not a remedial service. We’re here to help students become better writers,” Miller said.
