About
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Anyone enrolled or employed by Valparaiso University may come to the Writing Center to consult about writing related to courses, employment at Valpo, job search, and applications or scholarships. Peer consultants or the professional director will gladly offer help in face-to-face conferences, online exchanges, or through Instant Message chat. Consultation is free of charge. You can come in often. We encourage you to confer at several stages of a project–getting ideas, drafting, and revision.
Choose a consultation method that’s right for you. For our hours and contact details, click “How to Get Help” that you will find on this screen to your right.
Our Mission Statement
The Valparaiso University Writing Center provides instruction in writing to support and augment that given in classes, so that students may not only complete assignments but grow in their writing skills and feel the pleasure of developing as writers.
These principles serve as code of ethics and guide day-to-day practice:
- A writing center consultant should teach students how to write and revise their own work, not do the writing or revising for them.
- A writing center consultant should help students identify the most significant problems in their texts, so long as the help they provide does not violate the first principle.
- A writing center consultant should follow a student’s agenda for the writing conference, so long as that agenda does not violate the first or second principle.*
The principles should be applied in such a way that instruction has a positive, lasting impact on the writer and the writer’s skills and protects the writer’s long-term interests. Writing Center consultation should be of a nature that does not prohibit a student’s signing the Honor Code, unless a faculty member has prohibited use of the Writing Center.
*Michael Pemberton, “Writing Center Ethics: The Three laws of Tutorics,” Writing Lab Newsletter 19.4(1994): 13-14; quoted in Steve Sherwood, “Ethics and Improvisation,” Writing Lab Newsletter 22.4(1997): 1-5.
Who Works here
Trained peer consultants and/or the professional staff will confer with you. Consultants are chosen for their writing skills and facility in analysis of writing–they are from many majors. Also, they like to talk about writing and have taken a variety of courses on campus. Most consultants are juniors and seniors and are prepared to talk about papers from many courses. If you would like to apply for a position, stop by the Writing Center to express interest and fill out the application; generally interviews are held in April for the following fall.
Preparing for your appointment
- Plan ahead; plan for several appointments.
- Bring your assignment and other materials the prof. has distributed.
- Think of specific questions you have about the assignment and the text you have written.
- Let us know if we’re not providing the help you need!