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The University Writing Center is available to help your students become better writers. Here are a few of the frequently asked questions about the Writing Center.
The Writing Center is a tutorial service that assists Notre Dame students in all phases of the writing process, including finding an argument, organizing evidence, improving style, and learning grammar.
We work with all students, first year to seniors, undergraduate and graduate students, native and non-native English speakers. More, we see students from virtually all disciplines and colleges within the University. In the past three semesters, we have had over 3700 visits from student writers.
While many people think of the Writing Center as being strictly for inexperienced or unskilled writers ("This paper is terrible. You need to get to the Writing Center!"), we also work with Fulbright and Rhodes Scholar candidates, law and medical school applicants, and students writing senior theses and other sophisticated texts. In short, we serve inexperienced and experienced student writers, offering an audience for and response to their written work.
Tutors are undergraduate and graduate students, also from a range of disciplines and colleges. They receive extensive training before they begin tutoring, and their training continues throughout the semester. Most tutors, once hired, stay with us throughout their time at Notre Dame and so become highly experienced at working with student writers. Tutors are hired on the basis of faculty recommendations, writing samples, and personal interviews. They are paid for their work.
Do Tutors Write Papers for the Students?
No. Tutoring sessions are based on questions and dialogue, i.e., What is the main idea of this paper? Where did you write the main idea? What is the main idea of that paragraph? How does it relate to your larger argument? Why did you organize the paper this way? What are possible alternatives to that scheme? What would you say are their relative strengths and weaknesses, etc. How Can I Use the Writing Center in My Classes?
Notre Dame faculty use the Writing Center in different ways. You can:
1) Recommend that an individual student visit with us . Many students make their initial visit to the Writing Center on the basis of a professor's recommendation. Typically, students return after the initial visit for one or more follow-up visits.
2) Request that Writing Center tutors visit your classes . We will send tutors, subject to availability, to your classes to talk about the Writing Center and distribute flyers with our time and hours.
3) Bring your class to the Writing Center . If you choose to walk your class over to the Writing Center (203 Coleman-Morse Building), tutors will give a brief presentation on Writing Center teaching.
4) Make a Writing Center visit part of your syllabus . Many instructors require that students make at least one visit to the Writing Center as part of course work. This introduces students to the Writing Center, if they have not visited already, and gives them an opportunity to discuss their written work before they submit it to you.
How Do I know if My Students Are Using the Writing Center; or, What is a Tutor Note?
After each student visit, the tutor writes a brief account of the session--sticking to description and not evaluation. If students or faculty request, we will send you these reports. The account below (excerpted) is a recent Tutor Note.
I started the session by asking Mary to sum up her assignment for me, just to make sure she understood what she as being asked to do. Then I had her explain her "vision" for the paper orally, citing the evidence she was thinking of discussing. I repeatedly asked her questions like, "Why is this important?" and "What larger theme does this illustrate?" These questions pushed Mary to make a statement about the main idea of the paper. She then wrote this in the form of a thesis statement, and I encouraged her to use topic sentences related to the thesis when constructing her paper. I explained that topic sentences relate the "claim" of each paragraph to the large thesis.
Mary plans to write a draft of the paper, and may return to the writing center after completing a draft.
Do Students Need to Make an Appointment?
Not necessary but recommended. Students should go to our appointment scheduler to make an appointment. Do You Have Print Brochures I Can Share with Students? Just contact us at writing@nd.edu to have brochures sent your way. [back to top]
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