English skills are essential for the success of a student’s college career. For some students, however, regular instruction isn’t enough. They need one-on-one tutoring.
To help students achieve their goals, the University of Memphis launched the Center for Writing and Communication on Sept. 2. The CWC, located on the first floor of the McWherter Library, aims to promote writing and better speaking skills for students.
Program director and assistant English professor William Duffy explained how students could benefit from the center.
“The idea of a combined literacy center like the CWC is actually quite innovative, so we are well-positioned to offer students an array of resources that foster high-quality writing and communication,” Duffy said.
Reference librarian and member of the CWC advisory committee Jennifer Schnabel believes that the CWC will help students grow the skills they need to succeed.
“Librarians and CWC tutors are working together to ensure everyone has the opportunity to succeed,” Schnabel said.
Duffy believes that the CWC will help students to “develop editing strategies that can help them improve the clarity of their work.” He explained some of the bigger issues students seem to encounter with writing and speaking.
“A lot of students don’t feel confident as writers and communicators, so they undervalue their work and need help seeing its potential,” Duffy said. “We also see a lot of students who need assistance with academic writing more generally—crafting thesis statements, developing strong arguments, and writing clearly—but mostly students need guidance navigating the conventions of academic writing.”
Assistant English professor Donal Harris thinks students who utilize the program will benefit from it. Harris also sees the lack of revision as another problem with student’s writing.
“The CWC exemplifies how writing works in the real world: it focuses on revision as a key component of the writing process,” Harris said. “If you are a confident writer, you believe your ideas matter, then you also believe they are worth perfecting.
For some students, the fear of speaking in front of groups of people can be crippling. Professors find themselves advising students to slow down and don’t talk with their hands so much—common problems during student presentations.
Lack of public speaking skill can have an adverse effect on a student’s success in college, as oral presentations are part of the core foundation of a student’s college career and students are expected to give them not just in Oral Communications classes but in other courses as well.
Duffy believes that part of the CWC’s purpose is to help students prepare for oral presentations.
“Whether a student is working on a paper for a literature course, a speech for their Oral Communication course, a draft of a thesis proposal, a presentation for a psychology class, or even a grad school application essay, the CWC is nicely situated to provide quality assistance for all of these potentialities,” Duffy stated.
The CWC is an outgrowth of the Educational Support Program. Many students have successfully utilized the resources available from the ESP, but the size of the university called for something more structured.
The student feedback from the CWC has so far been positive. A majority of the students who visit gain a confidence boost.
“87 percent said that their consultant provided useful feedback, 83 percent had a clear plan for finishing their assignments, and most encouraging of all, 98 percent said they plan to use the CWC again,” Duffy said. “In fact, we have a growing number of students who have come in for a session 2-3 times before a writing assignment is due.”
