5 Things The UWC Writing Centre Can Do For You
The University of the Western Cape’s Writing Centre aims to help student writers to develop their academic reading and writing practices in a constructive and supportive academic space. Trained peer writing tutors can help you to develop, revise and refine your writing assignment before it has to be submitted for assessment. We work in collaboration with you, through asking questions, engaging in discussion and giving advice and guidance.
Here’s what the UWC Writing Centre can do for you:
1.We Help You To:
analyse academic tasks/assignment questions and work out what is expected of you;
search for and find relevant information if you’re stuck on what to write about;
understand and apply academic writing conventions, including correct grammar, spelling and overall style;
consolidate information from various sources effectively and avoid plagiarising other people’s ideas.
structure ideas coherently and organise information logically.
2.One-On-One Writing Consultations:
Our writing tutors are trained senior postgraduate students with a great deal of academic reading and writing experience – they will provide expert feedback to help enhance your writing.
3.Online Services:
Worried that you won’t be able to make the trek to the Writing Centre offices on campus? Not to worry – we also offer online/email tutorials. You can e-mail your assignment question and a draft of your assignment to us, and we’ll have a look at it.
4.What can you talk to us about?
Academic essays, reports, proposals, research-related writing, marked tests and assignments – in short, bring us any academic writing you are working on, and we’ll see what we can do to help.
5.Guidance, NOT Fixing:
The Writing Centre is about helping you find the right way to get your ideas across, not to write your essays for you.The writing tutors DO NOT proofread or correct your work for you.They provide you with comments, advice and suggestions that will empower and enable you to improve your own writing over time. We are there to read your work with insight, and give you advice and tools to use to become more confident and capable writers. We can help you work out what you want to write about, rather than tell you what to write about.
So, do you have a writing assignment that you just don’t know how to get started on? Are you looking at your essay and wondering how your brilliant ideas became a confused mess of weird words? Or do you just want to get a bit of guidance on how to polish up your grammar a bit? Whatever the case, why not visit us on the ground floor of the Old Arts building (you can download a map here). Or you can e-mail us for more information and to request online consultations on gdaries@uwc.ac.za, or call us on 021-959-2390 between 9am and 4pm Monday to Friday. And don’t forget to check out our Facebook page, where we share tips of the trade and fun writing tidbits.