Students not taking advantage of the Writing Center

By Elizabeth Cone
Staff writer

The Writing Center is a free service available to undergraduate and graduate students in any discipline. Its mission is to help people find a thesis, organize an essay or a report and use specifics and details when writing.
“The Writing Center will benefit any student who’s having trouble with an essay or a paper,” Megan Moore, a writing consultant at the center, said. “Anyone who needs help with the focus or the flow of a paper will benefit from these services.”
“Mostly English 1101 students take advantage of our services,” Moore said. “Philosophy, Business and Mass Comm students also have come to the Writing Center.”
All students are encouraged to use the Writing Center if they need any writing guidance.
The Writing Center has been at Georgia College & State University since 1997. “It was operated on a volunteer basis until last semester,” Dr. Peter Carriere, the Writing Center Director, said. “With the beginning of the new MFA program, we were able to staff the writing center with more people.” Having a bigger staff allows the center to extend its hours of service. Five graduate students in English, plus Carriere, work at the center as writing consultants. “We’ve got some expert help here,” Carriere said.
The Writing Center is open this semester Mondays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesdays 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Wednesdays 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursdays 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Fridays 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and noon to 4 p.m.
Located on the second floor of Lanier Hall in room 209, the Writing Center is a facility where students may also write papers. Carriere plans for the center to purchase different types of stylebooks, such as the MLA and the Associated Press manuals, so students can have them at their fingertips while writing.
“Our goal is to make people confident in their writing abilities,” Stephanie Shelton, another consultant, said. “When people have an assignment they don’t understand, we help them. If someone has written a paper but isn’t satisfied with it, we can help that person. We help with all stages of writing.”
For more information about the Writing Center and helpful links for writing, please visit www.gcsu.edu/acad_affairs/coll_artsci/eng/writing .

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 8 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry