[432] Writing Center To Have New Home In James E. Walker Library

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 23, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

WRITING CENTER TO HAVE NEW HOME IN JAMES E. WALKER LIBRARY
Help with Writing Process Conveniently at Hand Starting with Fall 2010 Semester

(MURFREESBORO) – Beginning in the fall 2010 semester, students who want assistance with their term papers, essays or short stories will be able to get help only steps away from the research materials they might need. The Margaret H. Ordoubadian University Writing Center at MTSU is moving this summer from its two locations in Peck Hall 325 and Ezell Hall 119 to one location in Room 362 of the James E. Walker Library. The new center will be across the mezzanine from the newly relocated Learning,
Teaching, and Innovative Technologies Center, where faculty members learn how to integrate creative educational methods and instruments into their teaching. The Writing Center also offers assistance to professors with their writing needs, including grants and proposals. The mission statement of the Writing Center reads, in part, “We want to cultivate the importance of writing as a process. We want to help UWC users become independent writers, capable of recognizing and capitalizing on their strengths as well as identifying and correcting their weaknesses.” Dr. Wesley Houp, assistant professor of English and Writing Center director, says, “With our upcoming relocation to the James E. Walker Library, our primary goal is to advance our core service—one-to-one tutoring in writing. As director, I believe the UWC and the library are entering into a new, mutually reinforcing relationship—a logical and extremely practical collaboration that will enhance both our services.”
This semester, 17 graduate students and five undergraduates served as tutors at the Writing Center. Dr. Stacia Watkins, assistant coordinator, says she should know by August how many tutors will be available in the fall. Watkins says the new facility will provide five computers for student use and one large space for tutoring with eight to 10 tutoring tables, enabling more hands-on, on-site guidance. In addition, the interactive SMART board that had been at Ezell will be housed in a larger space and will be available by appointment to help students who are slated to “stand and deliver” in class.
“Students will be able to practice giving a presentation, and we’ll have cameras that can [record] them,” says Watkins. “They’ll actually be able to watch it on the SMART board, and we’ll be able to tutor their presentation style.” --more--

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The proximity of the Peck Hall center to the third-floor offices of English professors left some students with the mistaken impression that the center is only for people who need help with English courses.
“I think the Writing Center will finally be seen as a University Writing Center rather than an English department writing center,” says Watkins of the relocation.
She emphasizes that tutors can help students concerned with any discipline with any stage of the writing process, including formatting for MLA, APA, AP, Turabian, American Sociological Association and other styles.
Another issue students bring to the Writing Center is that of proper citation. Watkins says Internet issues are on the wane, but plagiarism, however unintentional, is still a problem.
“Most students are at least aware of the fact that if they take something off the Internet that they need to clarify that it’s not theirs,” says Watkins. “They just don’t necessarily know how to do that.”
At present, the Writing Center is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday, from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. on Friday, and from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday in Peck 325 and from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday in Ezell 119. Watkins says she hopes the new center will remain open until 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday and until 5 p.m. on Friday with Saturday hours and possibly occasional Sunday workshops. However, the new hours won’t be finalized until the number of graduate tutors is determined.
For more information, call the center at 615-904-8237 or 615-494-9516, or send an e-mail to uwcenter@mtsu.edu.


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With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.