University Writing CenterStudent writing is a serious problem at every institution of higher learning in the United States, and Cal Poly Pomona is no exception. In fall 1999, 53% of Cal Poly Pomona’s 2,600 new freshmen required remediation in English, based on their English Placement Test (EPT) scores. However, until last quarter, Cal Poly Pomona lacked what most other CSU campuses, and even such institutions as Harvard and UCLA, have had for a long time–a writing center. The University Writing Center (UWC) at Cal Poly Pomona opened for business on September 25, 2000 and has already served 793 students in 5,114 student contacts. We are expanding our services and hope to double the number of students served in the coming quarter.
All Writing Center services are free to all Cal Poly Pomona students. The UWC offers both study groups and writing workshops, but our core service is a 30-minute one-on-one appointment. Writing Center tutors have been trained to offer a multi-level response to student papers, and are not limited to checking grammar and punctuation. Tutors can provide the following kinds of responses, usually in combination:
The UWC is not a proofreading and editing service. The focus of the Writing Center is more on helping the writer improve his or her skills than on improving the individual paper, although the paper will improve as part of the tutoring process. In fact, tutors are asked not to mark on student papers, but to put the correcting pencil in the hands of the writer. The tutor asks and answers questions, raises issues, and offers suggestions, but the writer must make decisions about how to solve the problems that the tutor raises. The tutor will not do the work for the student.
Our tutors have diverse linguistic, ethnic and educational backgrounds. Each tutor applicant must have a 3.0 or greater GPA, a “B” or better in Freshman Composition, a “9" or better on the GWT (or an acceptable writing sample) and at least one year of college. They must also take a proofreading and revision test and write a response to a student paper. Currently among our tutors we have seven English majors and one each from Animal Science, Art, Biology, Finance, Landscape Architecture, Liberal Studies, Mechanical Engineering, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Urban Planning. This diversity of majors helps us deal with writing from many different disciplines. We are still recruiting tutors, so if you find good writers with good inter-personal skills in your classes, please send them to us.
We can help students at any stage of the writing process, but many students come to us either with a first draft that they want to develop and improve, or a draft marked by the instructor that they want to revise. Many students come to the Center for help on their own, but instructors can also refer students. To facilitate referrals, we have an “Instructor/tutor Dialog Form,” which we will send to you on request. Just photocopy the form, fill out the top half, and give it to the student with the paper.
The new Writing Center is located on the ground floor of the University Library, next door to the Learning Resource Center in the space that used to be the 24-hour study room. We have an outside entrance in the back of the building near the parking lot. The Writing Center is open during the regular quarter Monday through Thursday 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, and Fridays 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. Students can make appointments by calling 909-869-5343. When students come in for the appointment they should bring along a copy of the assignment and a draft of the paper if they have started one.
For additional information about the Writing Center, or advice about writing assignments and other writing-related matters, call John Edlund, Writing Center Director, at 909-869-5347 or email to jredlund@csupomona.edu.
