Center offers writing tools for grad students
By Sarah Winter
April 5, 2007 9:28 p.m.
Graduate students looking for help with their writing ““ whether it’s a dissertation or a research-grant proposal ““ can find it at the UCLA Graduate Student Writing Center.
Created in response to requests from graduate students for better writing resources, the center offers one-on-one writing help as well as other writing workshops.
Mac Marston, Graduate Students Association vice president of internal affairs, said from the first week of the center’s existence, its resources have been used heavily.
“As soon as it opened … it was booked full, even without advertising,” he said.
Funds for the center were collected through a referendum passed last spring to implement a $3-per-quarter fee for graduate students.
When the fee was approved last spring, the center began tutoring sessions on an “ad hoc basis,” Marston said. As word spreads about the services, he hopes the center can serve students from all different areas of study.
This past summer, the center held a dissertation seminar for students who were in the process of writing their doctoral dissertation, Marston said.
The seminar was aimed at helping students complete their dissertations by offering structured workshops and one-on-one support from an experienced faculty member, he said.
Marston said the center will offer more programs like the seminar once its funding is consistent and the center is able to expand. In its first few months of operation, the center was run with loans because its funding was not yet handed over by the university, he said.
Christine Wilson, the coordinator of the UCLA Graduate Student Resource Center who currently oversees the writing center’s operations, said about 40 percent of students who use the writing resources are international students.
“Because they are doing research and writing in a second language, it is a harder task,” she said.
Students from all over campus seek help with their writing, and the center tries to match tutors with students based on their area of study.
“We recognize that writing a dissertation in the sciences is very different from writing a dissertation in humanities, … so we have tutors from across the campus,” Wilson said.
Tutors are advanced graduate students who have extensive writing experience.
Jared Fox, the chair of the committee currently overseeing the development of the writing center, said they are in the process of hiring a full-time director. Once the position is filled, he said the center will “have a lot more activities, workshops, seminars and other programs set up for students.”
To sign up for a tutoring appointment or find information about available writing workshops, students should visit the Graduate Student Resource Center Web site at gsa.asucla.ucla.edu/gsrc.
