University Writing Centre: English Studies: UWC Mission Statement and Guidelines

The primary mission of the University Writing Centre is to serve the writing needs of all students at the University of The Bahamas. A secondary mission involves serving the writing needs of the UB community and, in the near future, the needs of the wider island community.

In order of priority, the UWC's first operating principle is to encourage students to take and maintain a positive attitude towards their writing. The UWC aims to assist students in college preparatory courses in developing their writing skills in order to proceed to college level English courses, and it also aims to work with any other student at any stage of the writing process.

A second principle is that the writer does his or her own writing. Facilitators will not write papers or be used as proof-readers for homework assignments. Facilitators will, using common tutoring procedures, guide the student writer through the prewriting and drafting processes that lead eventually to the finished essay. The goal is to improve the writer and the writing, not perfect it.

A third principle is that in one-to-one tutoring, higher-order concerns (like invention, finding sources of content, thesis generation, structuring and developing ideas with specific, concrete support) take precedence over lower-order ones (like syntax, grammar, mechanics, dialectal differences, etc). Students in the final stages of a draft may request help with specific grammatical concerns, but facilitators will address these areas only after higher level concerns are discussed. Exercises that assist understanding of lower order concerns also may be used to improve students' understanding of various grammatical concerns.

The mission of the UWC is fulfilled when the student or client is satisfied that he or she is more confident about writing effectively and reading his or her work critically. The focus, therefore, is always on improving the skills of the writer through the specific sample of writing.
 

Students who need help with essays or the writing process:

1. Must make an appointment by registering and signing up in the online scheduler (our database) at: mywco.com/ub. The appointment session will take place in the UWC in Room F8. Each session generally runs for 30 mins.  If your essay or paper is more than 5 pages long, please book two concurrent 30 minute sessions.
2. Must bring relevant material with them, i.e. the assignment and/or instructions, a CLEAN copy of the document to be reviewed (only 1 per session), specific questions/concerns.
3. • Should not be more than ten minutes late for an appointment.
   • Students who are more than ten minutes late will lose the time slot to another student and will have to make another appointment online.
   • Students may not "leave a copy" of an essay to be "picked up" at a later time/date.
   • Students who need help with essays may be limited to two sessions per week, but may come in as often as necessary to complete/review grammar exercises, read, write, study, etc.
   • E-mail an electronic copy of their short papers (4-6 pages) at least 1 day in advance of their appointment.
   • Submit longer research/term papers at least 2 days in advance of their appointment.

Students who have scheduled appointments may use the computers to:

1. Type documents.
2. Use writing/instructional software.
3. Review information/web sites relating to their writing projects.
4. Print their papers.

Students will not be allowed to use computers to:

1. Play games.
2. Chat online.
3. View entertainment websites.

If it becomes necessary during the course of the semester, students will be given a two hour time limit for computer use.