The Puget Sound Center for Writing, Learning and Teaching has been a great resource for students on campus for years.
The Center for Writing, Learning and Teaching is a place for students of all levels, struggling or not. “Peers helping peers” is the idea behind the Center, and it is an invaluable source for students, especially at this time in the semester, when professors begin piling on the workload.
On the Writing side, writing advisors are trained to help across disciplines, although you can request an advisor in a specific subject area.
“The Center is a really good tool for students to utilize, no matter what level they feel like they are in a certain subject or on a paper,” junior writing advisor and tutor Elizabeth Kirsch said.
Advisors can help you out in any stage of the writing process, whether you are unsure how to get started on a prompt, need some assistance organizing your thoughts or have no clue where to begin your thesis. They can also give you some editing help, although they do not proofread papers.
In continuation of their liaison program, student writing advisors are often paired with a professor, namely for seminars and other classes that focus heavily on writing. These advisors are assigned to help students with their papers and other work in that specific class. They vary in levels of involvement, from holding one or two sessions per semester or dropping in once per week. Advisors are also available for help with oral presentations.
On the Learning side, peer tutors work with students individually or in small group sessions to improve their understanding of various subjects. So just because O-chem isn’t exactly your cup of tea, there is a tutor in the Center who can help you ace your next exam. The Center has tutors in all of the following subjects: accounting, biology, business, chemistry, economics, exercise science, foreign languages, math, physics and statistics.
Lastly, Director Aileen Kane teaches classes to improve performance every semester for a quarter of a credit. Next semester she is teaching Accelerated Reading, a course that is designed to improve reading efficiency and analytical reading skills.
The Center is made up of 33 student advisors, 21 tutors and 14 writing advisors. It is open from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.
Tutors have appointments and drop-in hours throughout the day, while writing advisors are by appointment. To ask about any service at the Center, call x3395. You can make a tutoring appointment at x2960 and a writing conference at x3404.