English Writing Center

ENGLISH WRITING CENTER

The Art & Sciences Writing Center is located in the Celis, Office 323. We are staffed by graduate and undergraduate peer tutors. Visit us for all of your writing needs. We also offer support in reading, vocabulary development, and grammar for all students who are interested.

OPEN NOW!!

Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm

787-265-5451

Our Goals

Our primary goal is the active intervention into students' writing processes to empower them to be able to create academically and intellectually sound documents of all kinds. Therefore, we seek to accomplish the following:

· Provide one-on-one, group, and referral tutoring in English and Spanish to help students create coherent texts in English in all disciplines.

· Support writers with individualized approaches to their language development.

· Support writers with individualized approaches to their lower and higher order writing concerns for creating cohesive and coherent texts in English.

· Support students with individualized approaches to their development of English reading, listening, and speaking

· Demonstrate strategies for the correction of grammar and punctuation in written texts.

· Promote expertise in skills involving analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and documentation.

· Strengthen students’ writing skills and foster a positive attitude towards writing.

· Provide accessible resources for students to support their writing development.

Our Mission

At the Writing Center, our mission is to help students of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (RUM) become more effective writers. We encourage students to develop their own strategies for writing and we guide them through the individualization of their writing processes. Therefore, our current mission is to serve the complex language needs of our students. Through a comprehensive program of tutorial, reference, and instructional services, the center is designed to meet the diverse needs of students in all disciplines. The center works both independently of and in concert with faculty teaching classes at all proficiency levels. We believe that writing shapes thinking, and thus the ability to write proficiently is the goal of every student at RUM. Furthermore, all students have the need to find their own writing processes. Our tutors’ objective is thus to help the students feel comfortable with peer to peer tutoring which will guide them in the quest to realize their own methods. In this way, we support all students in their progress towards fulfilling their potential as human beings who must be able to communicate their intentions clearly and effectively in the context of our highly complex, competitive, and technologically advanced society.

Our Vision

The Writing Center strives to be an integral component of education at RUM. Today, we offer direction and are able to coordinate efforts in language instruction and support within and across disciplines within the college of Arts and Sciences; in the future we will be part of a campus-wide integrated learning center for English and Spanish tutoring and resources in order to serve students, staff, faculty, and the community at large. As the first of its kind in the UPRM system, we have the potential to become an Island-wide center for bilingual English and Spanish language support and research. Thus the Arts and Sciences Writing Center strives to be a cutting edge institution whose research and support programs in a multilingual educational setting will contribute to the development of language-learning theory and practice.

Principles of Tutoring

Tutoring is an intervention into the individual writing processes of students in order to assist them in maximizing their effectiveness in writing, based on the following principles:

· The pencil always remains in the student's hand because the writer owns his/her paper.

· Writing is a process of invention and investigation, as well as a mode of communication.

· Conferring with writers is based on the Socratic Method of asking questions.

· Tutors negotiate with writers and apply diverse tutoring strategies for each writer, adapting to the writer's needs.

· Tutors understand the importance of establishing a supportive environment for writers.

· Peer-tutoring offers a relaxed environment where writers feel comfortable working; tutors do not judge a writer.

· In addition to tutoring, tutors provide a role model for students by demonstrating how to use reference materials.

From the A&S Tutoring Handbook 01/01/12 ksc

No appointment needed for undergraduate students! Take advantage of this free service!

Our hours are as follows:

Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm

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