Administration and contact information
Director: Rebecca Hallman Martini (rebecca.hallmanmartini@uga.edu)
Assistant Director: Emma Perry (emmacatherineperry@uga.edu)
Program Email: writingcenter@uga.edu
Who does the UGA Writing Center support?
Primarily student writers (both graduate and undergraduate) but we have also worked with faculty and staff on writing and supporting them in the teaching of writing via in-class workshops.
How would you describe the support the Center offers, say for students and faculty in writing-intensive classes across the disciplines more specifically?
We offer both one-on-one appointments (face-to-face, in real-time online, and feedback via email) as well as drop-in hours and in-class workshops on special topics.
In addition, we have a couple new kinds of support:
- In-class peer review workshops, where we send a group of writing consultants to your course to work with students on peer review in small groups
- Course-embedded tutoring, where a tutor is assigned to your course and meets regularly with your students throughout the course of the semester or has reserved hours specifically to meet with students in your course.
- We also host writing groups for graduate students and GAPs, participate in writing retreats (faculty and staff), and offer workshops in partnership with a range of programs including CTL, Service Learning, and others.
What role do you see the Writing Center playing in UGA’s writing culture and curriculum?
It is my hope that we will be able to offer more course and program-specific writing support. This year, we have undergraduate peer tutors as part of our staff for the first time, so we’ve been able to triple our availability, at least for this semester. Pending additional funding, we will be able to continue this increased availability on our tutoring schedule, which opens up more time for special projects.
What are the benefits of a one-on-one writing consultation?
There are so many! I think one of the greatest benefits is the individualized attention writers receive when they meet one-on-one with a writing consultant. Sessions can last for up to 45 minutes, so they get a much larger chunk of time than what they usually can get with their professor or through conferencing. In addition, writers can meet with the same writing consultant regularly overtime, so they can build a good relationship and make significant progress on their writing. Finally, the writing center is primarily concerned with supporting writers and their needs first and foremost. This means that the session is about them and their writing needs, so early on during the session, the writer and consultant negotiate the agenda for how they want to spend their time together. In this context, we try to emphasize student agency.
What’s one misconception around writing / the Writing Center you would like to address?
We do not edit, correct, or fix papers for writers. Instead, we work collaboratively with writers to help them improve in the long run. So, while we often focus our conversation on an individual paper or project, we are trying to help writers improve individually, beyond a single writing scenario.