Oftentimes, students aren’t sure of what kind of help the Writing Centre can support. At its core, the Centre is flexible and ready to assist students with any course assignment at any stage of the writing process.
As Writing Centre director Jon Sufrin explains,
The Writing Centre is glad to help students with any course-related assignment. Reflection writing, team and individual projects, lab reports, digitally based projects—really anything that is not pure creative writing the Writing Centre can assist.
In addition, the Writing Centre can help with critical writing endeavours outside course work. For instance, we regularly have students book a one-on-one appointment to talk more about cover letter for jobs and graduate school applications.
This list also extends to SHRC applications—even personal statements for scholarships, awards, and studying abroad. There have also been appointments where graduate students asked to work on articles they plan to submit for publication.
Each appointment is unique because our writing experts focuses on the student’s specific writing needs and tries to support students in any way possible.
For director Sufrin, his very first appointment in the WC was with a 2nd year biology major who had a report on nematodes. He said, “I spent all night reading about them so I could help, and I still know more about nematodes than is decent for a Humanities professor!”
He also added this about his most memorable students: “Sometimes I have the privilege of working with differently abled students who have specific learning needs, or EAL students, and those are always very inspiring. I love those appointments because the students are so engaged, so serious about learning and growing. You leave feeling like you’ve really taught someone something.”
It’s also important to note that students are always welcome to ask about grammar, sentence structures, word choices, and many more similar topics. Just know that your instructor won’t edit your work for you.
Instead, they will help you develop good grammar habits and techniques that can stay with you beyond your studies.
“It is about teaching you how to recognize your writing patterns, blind spots, weaknesses in organization, etc. In a WC appointment, we’ll teach you to recognize your writing patterns so you can spot your OWN mistakes. ”
There are many ways students can get support at the Writing Centre and it’s all possible due to the diverse roster of writing instructors, we have standing by!
“We try to hire instructors with expertise in different disciplines,” says Director Sufrin. “We also look for those who are multi- or interdisciplinary, so we have a wide variety of expertise. The most important criteria is prior work in a Writing Centre, and then we look for applicants from the different faculties and programs around York, to make sure we have diverse range of skills and backgrounds.”, finished the Director.
Come book a one-to-one appointment where our experts will accommodate to support all your assignment needs from any academic genre!
Learn More
To learn more about one-to-one appointments, please visit our registration page. The Writing Centre's online resources will continue to grow all year! You can also visit the Writing Centre’s blog!