Guidebook Draft

Table of Contents

Welcome 1
Academic Integrity Statement 2
Goal and Purpose 4
Hours and Appointments 6
Services 8
Tutor Duties and Conduct 10
Speak Test Assessments 12
Talking Points 17
Supportive Materials 18

Welcome

Welcome to the Writing Center! The Writing Center is a place that fosters learning. The Writing Center in the past has been a crucial part of the English Department. The Writing Center is embarking on a new goal that includes helping all students no matter the level or discipline.

Academic Integrity

Clemson University’s Academic Integrity Policy

Any breach of the principles outlined in the Academic Integrity Statement is considered an act of academic dishonesty.

Academic dishonesty is further defined as: 1. Giving, receiving, or using unauthorized aid on any academic work; 2. Plagiarism, which includes the intentional or unintentional copying of language, structure, or ideas of another and attributing the work to one's own efforts; 3. Attempts to copy, edit, or delete computer files that belong to another person or use of Computer Center account numbers that belong to another person without the permission of the file owner, account owner or file number owner;

All academic work submitted for grading contains an implicit pledge and may contain, at the request of an instructor, an explicit pledge by the student that no unauthorized aid has been given or received.

It is the responsibility of every member of the Clemson University community to enforce the Academic Integrity Policy.

http://www.clemson.edu/ugs/academic_integrity/index.html

The Writing Center’s Contribution to Academic Integrity

The Writing Center has a responsibility to uphold and maintain a level of academic integrity during tutoring sessions. Tutors should remain ethical in their tutoring sessions.

Writing Center tutors should not write on the students papers. This is to ensure that the student is making all the changes and improvements to their work and not depending on the tutor for changes and ideas.

Tutors should also avoid typing on the students’ computers. All freshmen are required to have a laptop computer and many will bring them in to the tutoring sessions. Academic integrity is hard to maintain with the rise of technology and the university requests that the tutors refrain from doing any work on the computers for another students.

Writing Center tutors should also be on the lookout for plagiarism. Please identify the errors with the students and take the opportunity to educate the student in the rules for citation. It is not plagiarism till the paper is turned in to the professor; this provides the Writing Center the opportunity to prevent plagiarism.

The Writing Center’s Purpose and Goal


Purpose:
- Provide a service that is helpful to the students
- Support the English 103 teachers
- Help students recognize their weaknesses in writing and teach them the necessary principles and techniques
- Provide feedback to all students including graduate students



Goals:
Clemson University is taking steps to become a top research university. That goal includes making the Writing Center reflect and aid to the research nature of the University. Tutors should strive to support this goal by provide excellent tutoring sessions for all students.




Writing Center Hours and Appointments



Tutors Hours
Tutors are required to work at least 15 hours each week and attend a staff meeting once a week. In the beginning on each semester please provide the Writing Center with your class schedule and hours you are available to work.


A Few Suggestions
- Please keep in mind that you should not be tutoring more than three hours at a time. Although it may seem easy in the beginning of each semester once the work load picks up you’ll be seeing students back to back and after three hours it is hard to tutor efficiently.
- Please allow for a couple hours in between the times you have to work.
- Allow time to get lunch or dinner before class times. This should be approximately an hour long.


Writing Center Hours
The Writing Center is open 8am-5pm four days a week and one day a week the center will be open late 8am-8pm. The late day is will be scheduled after all the tutors submit their schedules.

Appointments
Appointments give the students the opportunity to reserve a time during busy times of the semesters or reserve a certain tutor.

Students can either call or stop in and schedule an appointment. Appointments should be thirty minutes but the session can go on longer if necessary but only if there are no other students waiting.

Students who have made appointments are the priority. If a student walks in for a session please check the appointment book to see if there are in students coming in. Politely let the student know that if the appointment comes in the session will have to end.

Writing Center Services



Tutor Duties


- Please try to be on time and make all staff aware of any schedule changes.

- If you are sick please contact the assistant director and make plans to make up your time. Please try to get 15 hours each week.

- As a tutor you are responsible to maintain a professional attitude during the tutoring sessions. Tutors should try to build relationships with the students who come in. It is easier to help a student if you have seen them multiple times.

- If you run into a tough tutoring situation please ask other tutors for assistance or ask the assistant director for help.

- Tutors are required to attend a training meeting in the Studio once a week. This allows tutors to talk about the experiences they have had and raise any issues that need to be resolved.

- Tutors will be asked to speak in various classes in the beginning of each semester about the Writing Center. Please volunteer for at least one class. The speeches should only be a few minutes long and the Talking Points are located on page ?? for reference.

- Tutors will need to answer phone calls. Students will be calling to schedule appointments.

Speak Test Assessments







Talking Points



The Writing Center

Daniel 305

Hours: Mon 8am-8pm
Tues- Fri 8am-5pm

Ph: (864)656-3280

- We accept walk-ins and appointments
- Appointments can be made by phone or in person
- We provide a second audience and assist with additional instruction.
- We are for everyone. We are not a remedial service.
- We strongly recommend avoiding procrastination on assignments because more than one tutorial session is often needed.
- We help with the finished product and we assist in brain storming, topics selection, theses arrangement, etc.
- We will not grade or suggest a grade on assignments.
- We will make recommendations and provide an audience, but the instructor is the final authority.


Please note-

We are not a proofreading service.
We are not a computer lab.

Supportive Materials



- Please make use of the books located on the bookshelf. (Please do not let the student take them from the room).

- Many universities have online writing centers. Purdue has excellent resources for handouts, etc. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

- Grammar Girl is a source that some English 103 teachers like to use- http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/

- Here is a list of university writing centers that could be helpful-
http://writingcenter.gmu.edu/index.html
http://www.owl.neu.edu/
http://www.tc.edu/centers/writingcenter/