Writing Center Policies and Practices

Policies and Practices

The peer-centered approach in the Writing Center enables students seeking our services to interact in a more comfortable environment, on equal footing with the consultant, and to have a discussion about their writing rather than be told "how-to." Consultants in the Writing Center want students to feel free to ask questions in a non-threatening, non-evaluative atmosphere, where the students can express their concerns about writing.

One of our goals is to help students gain confidence in their writing. To do that, we help them recognize their own strengths and weaknesses by asking a lot of questions, thereby prompting the students to consider their own writing processes. When students return for repeat visits to the Center, consultants are able to help them recognize their progress.

Inclusivity Statement

The SMSU Writing Center strives to provide a welcoming and accessible environment that is conducive to learning through its commitment to meeting the many diverse needs of the entire SMSU community.

In all of our policies and hiring practices, we work to be an inclusive space. We support the unique voice each individual brings to the Writing Center as they work to achieve academic success.

Plagiarism

One task of a Writing Center consultant is to help students to recognize how to properly cite sources and incorporate source material into their texts. Should a consultant suspect plagiarism in a text, they will draw the writer's attention to it, ask if the writer knows how to cite sources, show them how if they do not, and tell them that ethically, they are obligated to do so; to not do so violates the University's academic dishonesty policy.

Should a student writer boast to a consultant that they have plagiarized and have no intentions of changing their text to give credit to sources, the consultant will report the incident to the Writing Center Director, who will then forward the information on to the appropriate instructor.