All of them! If you're assigning writing projects in your courses, your students can benefit from a visit to The HUB. We’ve worked with students on essays, research papers, lab reports, scripts for podcasts, and even drafts of oral presentations. Our goal is to help students work through their ideas and information, so we do more than just help with sentence structure and grammar. When sharing information about The HUB with your students, know that the center truly is for any writer since everyone can benefit from discussing ideas, plans, analysis, and development with individuals who are eager to provide feedback.
Before applying to work at The HUB, students need to take English 113EL: Writing Center Theory & Practice (ELSJ), which counts as a 5-unit Advanced Writing and Experiential Learning for Social Justice course. Anyone who earns a “B” or higher is eligible to apply for a writing partner position. Students leave the course with a background in theoretical ideas related to the teaching of writing and writing center best practices, including active learning methods. They know how to differentiate between tutoring and editing and how not to appropriate a writer’s text. They will also have participated in a quarter-long practicum where they help writers in one-on-one settings.
We encourage all professors to advertise the HUB Writing Center in their syllabi and on Camino sites. Please feel free to use the following blurb:
For any writing you do, you can use The HUB Writing Center as a resource. The HUB employs trained writing partners who can assist you with idea development, planning, clarity, and more. You can make an appointment or drop-in at any stage of the writing process and can get help developing and practicing public speaking presentations at The HUB as well!
The HUB is open Sundays through Thursdays from 4:00-10:00 p.m.
It’s ideal when writers come to the center of their own accord; however, if you plan to offer extra credit for a visit, have students use the appointment system. It's also best to announce this opportunity well in advance of any due dates and to encourage students to time their appointments for when they might most need help. More often than not, when visits are required, whole classes will come in the day before an assignment is due, which does not allow for the most effective learning environment. To help address such issues, you can ask students to reflect on when they might need help. For example, if students know they have a hard time starting an assignment, they can make appointments for early on in the writing process. If they tend to work well on their own at first but then want feedback on analysis and development, appointments during the middle of the writing process could serve them best.
It's important to note that the HUB is not an editing service. Our goal is to help students become better writers, and so we focus on helping students learn how to self-identify and self-correct errors. For example, a writing partner might focus on a few recurrent errors within a text and will help a writer learn how to identify and correct such errors. We do not provide a line-by-line editing service.
Learning to be a better writer can take time, and since we do not want to overwhelm individuals during their sessions, we often limit sessions to 30, 45, or 60 minutes. This means that not every detail (grammatical or otherwise) of a writing project might get covered. However, the writer and writing partner will work together to make certain that the session is as focused and productive as possible.
For these reasons, it is also beneficial to encourage writers to come to the center more than once when they are working on a project.
Throughout the year, The HUB Writing Center co-hosts workshops with Faculty Development. Look for e-mail announcements about these. In addition, faculty are welcome to stop by the writing center for feedback on assignments they plan to use in their courses or to have a writing partner read over a text. For additional HUB partnerships, please contact the Director, Denise Krane, at dkrane@scu.edu.
