From the Writing Center

It's been another busy semester in the Writing Center. This fall, we welcomed our new cohort of 7 Writing Center Undergraduate Tutors (WCUT) and an incoming class of 6 new Writing Center Instructors to complement our staff of veteran tutors and instructors. In early 2020 we will begin the process of recruitment for next year's WCUT class. If you are interested in becoming an Undergraduate Tutor, we encourage you to ask a professor to nominate you (faculty will receive instructions in January). We will invite all nominated students who are in good standing with the university to submit an application to join the program in fall 2020.

This past October, two of our WCUT staff presented their research at the joint 2019 National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing/ International Writing Centers Association conference held in Columbus, Ohio. Senior Secondary Education English major Marie Erickson presented a poster on "Introducing English Language Learners to English Academic Discourse: Strategies in the Genre-Based Approach to Teaching Writing." Marie has contributed a note regarding her experience at the conference, which you can read below. Senior English major Joseph Rose ran a workshop on working with creative writers in the Writing Center. Congratulations to these undergraduate researchers for their sharing their work at the leading international bodies of the field!

Kevin Rulo
Director, University Writing Center
Clinical Assistant Professor of English

 

At this year’s International Writing Center Association / National Conference of Peer Tutoring in Writing Conference, I presented my research on strategies to acquaint English Langauge Learners (ELLs) with English academic discourse in a poster presentation. I also attended many conference sessions, including the keynote speaker who discussed analyzing the body language of Writing Center sessions through gesture drawings, as well as other topics ranging from strategies for working with ELLs to breaking down barriers in sessions at the high school level to engaging international students in Writing Center sessions. During my poster session as well as the other sessions I attended, I had the opportunity to speak with many Writing Center directors on a variety of topics of interest to me. I look forward to continuing to network with some of these individuals as well as considering ways to continue looking into their research for potential opportunities to improve practice at the Catholic University Writing Center.

Marie Erickson (B.A. English Secondary Education '20)
Writing Center Undergraduate Tutor