The Center for Academic Writing acts as a bridge between departmental faculty and students. We seek to collaborate with other faculty to understand the writing that is being assigned in order to better prepare students to succeed with these writing challenges. We welcome the opportunity to discuss any issues related to academic writing.
Academic Writing Instructors by Department (AY 2009-10)
The following instructors are responsible for students in individual departments this year.
Economics: John Harbord, David Ridout, Tom Rooney
Environmental Sciences & Policy: Cynthia-Marie O'Brien, Eszter Timar
Gender Studies: Andrea Kirchnopf, Cynthia-Marie O'Brien, David Ridout
IRES: Robin Bellers, Reka Futasz, John Harbord
Legal Studies:
Comparative Constitutional Law: Robin Bellers
Human Rights: Eszter Timar
International Business Law: Reka Futasz, Cynthia-Marie O'Brien
Nationalism: Robin Bellers
Philosophy: Reka Futasz, Andrea Kirchnopf
Political Science: David Ridout, Tom Rooney, Eszter Timar
Public Policy: Reka Futasz, John Harbord, Cynthia-Marie O'Brien
Roma Access Program: David Ridout
Sociology: Tom Rooney, Eszter Timar
Writing Courses
To familiarize students with the principles of academic writing and help them acquire the necessary skills, we offer courses in both semesters. In the fall we offer a course which prepares students for writing at the graduate level. In the spring we focus on specific issues related with thesis writing.
We are happy to collaborate with faculty in designing additional workshops or courses to target discipline specific issues. Please contact us with your ideas or questions.
Writing Consultations
One the most appreciated forms of support we offer is individual consultations with students on their departmental assignments. In many departments we work closely with faculty to assist students in writing a paper before the student then submits to the supervisor.The purpose of consultations is educational: to help students to become better writers.We strive to achieve this by discussing their paper, their objectives and their general writing concerns with them, or offering suggestions on conventions of academic writing they may not be familiar with. We turn away students who request that we rewrite or polish their papers for them, and we ask for your understanding in this. As we are often unable to discuss all the problems of a paper within one consultation, we encourage students to return for further consultations.
If faculty feel a student needs to improve some aspect of their writing, such as organisation, clarity, argumentation, use of sources, style or language problems, please recommend students work closely with the CAW for consultations. It is also very helpful if faculty set deadlines in the last three days of the week in order to allow students to come for a consultation after drafting.
We teach students general principles of good writing, but they may not always be familiar with the type of task you ask of them, the format you expect or the audience you are asking them to write for. We always appreciate it if you can let us know about the task you are setting and what you expect of the students, so that we can help them as much as possible to meet your expectations. If students are confused or unclear, we may refer them back to you to discuss the task again, but we are also happy to meet you and discuss the terms of the assignments so we are better informed.
If for any reason a faculty member would like students to complete an assignment (such as an exam) without any help from the Writing Center, please let us know us in advance.
