Writing Center Highlights!

During the academic year to date, the Writing Center saw a total of

1379 tutees
3016 sessions
25 workshop attendees

Many thanks to the wide range of university programs that helped fund travel for W.C. ESL researchers to present a panel at the 58th annual convention of  the Conference on College Composi- tion and Communication. Funding came from University Life, English, Anthropology, English Language Institute, WAC, and the Center for Teaching Excellence. Alex Antram, Alokparna Das, Anna Habib, and Eiman Hajabbasi spoke on the panel titled “‘HowI Learned To . . .’: Non-nativeStudents Invent the AmericanUniversity, ”  describing theirproject in which they interviewedstudents from varied cultural andlinguistic backgrounds to discoverhow these students recreate theiridentities as writers in the Ameri-can academy. Terry Zawacki oversees this ongo ing Diversity Research Group project and served as chair of theCCCC panel. For more information on the panel, visit http://www.ncte.org/ or email writing center staff at wcenter@gmu.edu.

Writing At Center
Editor: Anna Habib
Production Editor: Scott Weaver

Teaching Writing at George Mason RAK
by Aisha Ravindran, Ph.D. English

George Mason University’s newly established campus at Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a model for the combined global vision of GMU and Crown Prince of Ras Al Khaimah, H.H. Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). This campus demonstrates the central role education can play in creating a bridge between cultures.  more

Some Exercises for Using Visuals in Different Disciplines

Zotero: A Reseach Tool for the 21st Century

To help Mason’s highly ranked (by U.S. News and World Report) Writing Across the Curriculum program continue to serve students and faculty in our rapidly growing university, the Provost recently allocated additional funding to support faculty in their efforts to teach effectively with writing.  To best provide this support, we needed to understand what types of writing are currently being assigned and what kinds of assistance faculty need, especially those teaching writing-intensive courses, to help them accomplish their goals for student writing in the course. In the fall, Terry Zawacki, WAC director, and I began conducting interviews with undergraduate coordinators, chairs, and associate chairs. more

New Classroom Focus for the George Mason Review
by Reba Elliott, MFA TA / GM Review Editor

An exciting new classroom resource will be provided, free of charge, to instructors this May. The upcoming issue of the George Mason Review, the journal of exemplary undergraduate student writing, will be a departure from previous issues, which were under-utilized.  more