The Writing Center: Not Just for English Classes

Holly Sauer

The Writing Center is a program provided by the English Department, but more and more students from many other departments are beginning to take advantage of the services offered there.

The Writing Center gives PSU students the opportunity of seeing a tutor about their writing problems. Tutors in the Writing Center are usually junior and senior English majors. Some are paid, but English Education majors tutor 45 hours a semester to earn credit for English 480 Techniques Lab. Tutor Krista Garoutte thinks the program benefits not only the students, but also the tutors: "It's great experience for when we actually get out in the classroom and start teaching. We get to work with a variety of students who have different learning styles."

Writing Center tutors say that, though they still see mostly English 101 and 299 students, now they are also seeing more students from math, history, chemistry, and many other disciplines. These students all want to improve their writing, but the areas that need improving vary. "We see a lot of chemistry and physics students who are having trouble putting their lab reports in passive voice. We also help a lot of students in the MBA program who want to be sure that their papers follow the principles of Standard Academic American English," says tutor Blair Croan.

Many students in Writing to Learn (WL) courses also visit the Center. PSU requires every student to take two WL courses, General Education courses in which students do formal and informal writing to stimulate their thinking on the course topics.

International students also regularly take advantage of the Center. Garoutte says, "They usually just have minor problems like using the wrong article, 'the' instead of 'a,' for example. It's really great that we provide this service. Where else would they go for the type of help we give?"

Dr. John Franklin, Writing Center director, also sees the Center as a big success: "The tutors are what really make the program work. I like to give them space to do with it what they want. I'm always open to their ideas about ways to improve the Center. So far they have done a great job of providing help to students all over campus."