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Writing Services

 

Writing services at Waterloo and Brantford can help undergraduate and graduate students develop the writing skills needed to succeed in their academic studies. We provide an accessible, supportive, student-centred environment where ideas can take shape and students can develop their writing through critical thinking.

Writing support includes:

  • One-on-one writing appointments (online and in person) with a student or professional staff member.
  • On-campus, in-class, and online writing workshops.
  • Online writing resources.

Writing support on the Waterloo campus is through Writing Services.

Writing support on the Brantford campus is through Learning Skills and Development.

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For the Fall of 2020, all of our writing services will be offered online. We will be conducting scheduled writing appointments using Microsoft Teams and Google Docs. We will be conducting our drop-in support using Zoom.

Our full writing appointment schedule will begin on Monday, September 21st and will run until Friday, December 11th.

Our drop-in support this term will be on Thursdays from 12pm-4pm. The first drop-in day will be Thursday, September 24th; the last drop-in day of the term will be Thursday, December 10th. 

All of our appointments, as well as information about the drop-in, can be booked through the Student Success Portal.

Writing Services offers individual and in-class writing support for all students at Laurier's Waterloo campus. We work with undergraduate and graduate students at any stage of the writing process to help them enhance their academic writing. The key principle of our approach is to support the writing that goes on in the classroom in a way that helps students become better writers and achieve their academic goals. Our work is informed by internal and external research on academic writing and instruction.

Writing Services has two full-time staff and approximately 20 paid student tutors.

We are located in the Teaching and Learning Commons, 2nd floor Peters. Look for the Writing and Learning Lab, room P226.
You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

We offer writing support in a variety of ways:

  • Individual consultations with trained student tutors.
  • Access to writing resources.
  • On-campus workshops.
  • In-class lectures or workshops at the request of faculty.

Writing Services is grateful for the support of the Student Life Levy and the Beckman Writing Centre Endowment.

Mission, Values, and Guiding Principles

Our mission is to help students become better writers and achieve their academic goals.

We value:

  • An accessible, supportive, dynamic, community environment where ideas can take shape.
  • Learning that is student-centered, engaged, and interactive.
  • Diversity and a culture of inclusivity.
  • The crucial connection between critical thinking and writing.
  • The principles of academic research, inquiry, and integrity.
  • The central role of language in the production of all text forms.
  • The academic and institutional traditions of writing.

Our guiding principles:

  • Writing Services uses a genre-based approach to promote genre awareness among students and faculty. This approach is derived from analysis of professional academic writing, model student writing, and writing theory and research.
  • Writing Services recognizes difference and diversity among the various academic disciplines and, more generally, among discourse communities and rhetorical situations. We see Writing Services as having expertise on writing, rhetoric, and discourse; but each academic discipline is expert in its own disciplinary discourses and genres.
  • Writing Services does not operate as a service for "defective students" but strives to support students in developing understanding of and competency in academic text conventions and language, in partnership with the various disciplines.
  • Writing Services is research based; that is, we use research to inform our work. Pedagogy and research are tied. The notion that teaching and research intertwine is a foundational value of universities.

Learning Skills and Development on the Brantford campus is an integrated academic support that can help you develop your learning skills, including academic writing.

This section is about writing. For information about study skills services, see our Study Skills pages.

We offer writing support in a variety of ways:

Blog

The team in Learning Skills and Development value our commitment to aiding students and meeting their academic needs. In our effort to increase communication with our students, our student peer mentors contribute to a blog to post helpful, inspirational and occasionally humorous content that we hope will be of interest to and helpful to you.