The BYU Writing Center ranked 5th nationally according to the Writing Center Research Project with 10,501 writing consultations and announces changes for the coming school year.
PROVO, Utah (Sep. 6, 2016)—With the new academic year underway, the BYU Writing Center is poised to provide quality assistance to students seeking to improve their academic writing. From a merger with the ESL Writing Lab to new International Tutor Training Program Certification, the Writing Center will no doubt live up to the outstanding rankings achieved in the past academic year.
In 2015, BYU’s Writing Center was ranked 5th nationally by Purdue University’s Writing Center Research Project for total visits at a research university writing center. That means 10,501 writing consultations, 868 research consultations with library staff, and an overall 22 percent increase in usage from 2014-2015 made the BYU Writing Center one of the busiest writing centers in the nation, according to the most current research statistics.
Yet numbers and rankings aren’t the only milestones at the Writing Center worth praising. Earlier this spring, the center received International Tutor Training Program Certification from the College Reading and Learning Association, allowing graduate and undergraduate Writing Center tutors to certify as internationally recognized tutors. With the requisite training, this certification awards three titles: Tutor, Advanced Tutor and Master Tutor. Lisa Bell, the assistant coordinator at the Writing Center, commented that these are lifelong titles and are recognized across programs and institutions.
And the Writing Center will only keep getting busier at the beginning of the new academic year. During the summer, the Writing Center merged with the ESL Writing Lab.
“Our programs and purposes have overlapped since 2013, so the merging of services was ideal and understandable,” said Bell.
Bell, who also has TESOL certification and ESL teaching experience, added, “The Writing Center will continue to provide tutor training in working with ESL writers and has invited ELang and linguistics faculty to collaborate in that training. With the ESL Writing Lab closing its door, we have transitioned some of their tutors to work in the Writing Center and have increased our tracking and assessment of this demographic of writers we are serving.”
For more information about the BYU Writing Center and to view helpful handouts for the new edition of the MLA Handbook, visit the center’s website.
—Sylvia Cutler (B.A. English/French ’17)
Sylvia Cutler covers the Writing Center for the College of Humanities. She is pursuing a double major in English and French with a minor in women’s studies.