Writing Center Highlights!

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

1460 clients in
2925 sessions
26 workshop attendees

The writing center has been fortunate to have the following students sign on as peer tutors this spring. We also continue to appreciate our writing fellows. In light of Mason’s strong WAC mission, it’s impressive to see the range of majors these  students represent.

Peer tutors:
– Million Fikre, NCC and Government
– Elizabeth Fraser, IT
– Ahriel Harris, Accounting
– Abby Redmon, English
– Andrew Schleuter, History
– Joanna Wiedel, Psychology

Writing Fellows:
– Alex Antram, Anthropology. Writing Fellow for Theater 350, with Professor Ed Gero
– Tonka Dobreva, Public and International Affairs. Writing fellow for Computer Science 306, with Professor Tamara Maddox
– Katie Fair, Social Work. Writing fellow for Nursing  465, with Professor Susan Durham

George Mason University Writing Center peer tutor Million Fikre won this year’s Student Vision Award, given by the Office of Diversity Programs and Services. The award recognizes students for excellence in academics, leadership, social justice, and building of community harmony.

Peer Tutor Elizabeth Fraser was George Mason University's 2006 nominee for the Google Anita Borg Scholarship for women in technology.

Peer Tutor Tonka Dobreva was recently honored as one of GMU's three nominees for the 2006 all USA College Academic team sponsored by USA TODAY.

Four of our faculty will be presenting papers at the 8th International Conference on Writing Across the Curriculum to be held at Clemson in May: Jeanne Sorrell and Pamela Cangelosi, Nursing; Stanley Zoltek, Mathematics; and Terry Zawacki and Chris Thaiss, English. 

Writing At Center
Director/Editor: Dr. Terry Zawacki
Production Editor: Scott Weaver
Web Designer: Sally Baggett

How Correct Must Your ESL Students' Writing Be? Some Faculty Opinons
by Scott Weaver, MFA TA/Tutor

As a TA who teaches intro comp and literature, I struggle with the question of how correct the writing of my non-native students needs to be.  I was interested in hearing responses from faculty across the university to this and other  related questions, including: How much attention do you give to the quality of the students’ prose as compared to the quality of the ideas the writer is trying to express? Do written errors carry the same weight for you if the writer is an ESL student or do you grade all writers on the same scale? 

Do you think it is fair to grade all students – non-native speakers and native speakers – on the same scale?  To hear what faculty have to say, the Writing Center sent these ESL-related questions to teachers in several departments.  We were happy to hear that the faculty we queried generally agree that errors do “count,” especially if they interfere with meaning; however, most say they are willing to spend time finding and pointing out patterns of errors in order to help students improve. Here’s what they had to say: more

How To Edit a Paper: A Checklist for Your Students

ELI Program Helps Non-Native Speakers Reduce Errors

George Mason's WAC Program
Receives Honor

For the fourth year in a row, George Mason’s WAC program has been
honored among the top twenty Writing in the Disciplines programs in the country by the U.S. News and World Report, College Issue 2006 (p. 51). more

Chris Thaiss, Originator of GMU WAC Program, to Assume Position in California

Efficient and informative, Eiman’s session seemed like a template for how to tutor non-native speakers—and native English speakers as well.  In fact, the methods Eiman employed could be useful for teaching with writing across the disciplines, as I will show in this article. more