The West Campus Writing Center
5-155A
What We Do: We go over English essays with students from all disciplines, all courses, college-wide
We also work with Prep or EAP students with anything related to their Prep or EAP courses.
      - If an EAP student wants to go over a grammar assignment with an instructor, we'll do it.
      - If an EAP speech student wants help with pronunciation, we'll do it.
      - If a Reading student wants extra help with Main Idea, we'll do it.
      - Etc.
The Instructors: The Writing Center is staffed with Valencia English, Reading, and EAP adjunct faculty and teachers from other venues bringing similar teaching experience and credentials. 
Availability: By appointment:  each appointment is 30 minutes, research papers may be 60 minutes.
Hours of Operation:
Fall and Spring Hours:
 reduced summer hours		 Mon - Thur
8am to 8pm		 Fri
8am to 2pm		 Sat
9am to 3pm		 Sun
CLOSED
Core Philosophies and other things you need to know:
Dear Teacher,
Rest assured that the work your students turn in represents what your students can produce, not what our instructors can produce. 

Learning-centeredness suggests that we not "fix" or "correct" student papers, but rather, facilitate the process of learning and making improvements so that the student understands how to do it better next time.  That means that the responsibility for the finished product rests not with the Writing Center instructors, but with the student.  Thus, essays that have gone through the Writing Center are likely to still contain errors. and may or may not be satisfactory finished products. 

There may be something that you think should have been addressed, but wasn't.  There can be a couple of reasons for this: 

(1) A 30-minute consultation is akin to triage: the instructors will choose what to address depending on the course, on what is happening in the essay, and on student questions. Not everything in that essay will get
addressed.  Or, some things may get addressed quickly after other things have been discussed at greater length. 

(2) An item may have been addressed, but the student may not have made an appropriate correction.

MLA:
We will not "check" MLA documentation.  The ready availability of MLA handbooks and guides makes that the student's job.  We will, however, briefly scan to see whether students demonstrate a grasp of MLA fundamentals.  If not, rather than correct their work, we will show them MLA fundamentals and how to use the MLA handbook.  This approach takes longer, but develops the student more.

Plagiarism:
We will engage in a brief dialogue about citing sources and plagiarism as needed.  And, we will write, "Source?" in the margin.  We may elect to terminate the Writing Center appointment if it appears that we are looking at a heavily plagiarized text.
Contact Information: Make an appointment by calling the Writing Center at (407) 582-5454