For the first time, the UT Library, Study and Career,and TCP Language Centrehave joined forces to provide students with a place to bring their writing woes. The Writing Centre opened this month and is centrally located in the UT Library. Students can sign up through the Writing Centre website for a maximum of three individual sessions with an English or Dutch tutor. Sessions are held on Monday and Wednesday and you can sign up four weeks in advance.
You can also ask questions online, attend an afternoon writing workshop, and check out writing tips and useful writing links through the Writing Centre website. ‘The whole idea is to help students who are stuck in their writing process, so they do not slow down their studies,’ said Sabien van Harten, director of the TCP. ‘We are really excited about this new Writing Centre.’
The centre is part of ‘Just in Time’ which is a renewal of the UT’s approach to learning. Just in Time aims at encouraging students to better access their personal needs and become responsible for their own education. The Writing Centre is a pilot project which will hopefully become a permanent support service for students in 2013.
The idea for a Writing Centre started with Katja Hunfeld, TCP Dutch coordinator. ‘The University of Tilburg has a Writing Centre,’ she said. ‘I researched how they operate and what they do.’ The idea for the UT then took hold in January this year.
‘More and more international students request help with their writing,’ Hunfeld said. ‘For example, German students are used to writing long, complicated sentence structures. They may need help adapting to the Dutch and English conventions of writing more interesting and readable texts.’
‘Often students bump into a wall,’ agreed Van Harten. ‘For example, they may struggle with the language of a text, not knowing how to phrase their ideas, while the underlying problem might actually be the structure of the text. We can help them find some clarity when faced with these kinds of problems.’
‘We also work together with the UT Library information specialists when students have questions about sources,’ said Hunfeld. ‘For example, how to use footnotes and how to make a bibliography.’
Four writing workshops are planned in 2011. The three-hour workshops will be offered in English in cooperation with Study and Career. You can learn about plagiarism, how to overcome writer’s block, where to find Web support, and how to best structure your writing. Classes and the Writing Centre services are available for bachelor and masters students. PhD students, employees and staff looking for help need to contact the TCP directly for private sessions.
‘I hope that all students will come and contact the Writing Centre,’ welcomed Van Harten. ‘We hope no one misses out on this new service.’
For more information, see the Writing Centre or Writing Workshops.
Catherine Ann Lombard
‘The new Writing Centre combines services that already exist at the UT, but now it’s at one physical location. We hope people will come to the Library and find it,’ said Hunfeld. Photo: Gijs van Ouwerkerk
