VIU Writing Centre represented on world stage

The Writing Centre at Vancouver Island University recently made its international debut. Dale Wik, MFA Coordinator, was one of just two Canadian presenters at the European Writing Centres Association Conference in Freiburg, Germany:  “I wanted to establish VIU on the global stage – we have a lot to be proud of here,” said Wik whose presentation was titled Writing Centres: The Evolutionary Journey from the Margins to the Core of the Institution.

Wik says the journey of VIU’s Writing Centre mirrors the evolution of writing centres in general. Once thought of as a remedial service, the Writing Centre has moved from the edges of academia to the centre of the institution where it has grown to its own department under the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. 

A distinguishing feature of VIU’s Writing Centre is students’ ability to access to faculty. “While most writing centres across Europe and North America are staffed by peer tutors, VIU students meet with faculty tutors,” said Wik.

While the centre does offer help with the basics, Wik stresses there’s more to good writing than perfect punctuation. “Life is too short to spend more than a few minutes on a colon or semicolon,” she said. “We address it, then we move on to higher level concerns like clear expression of the idea or message.”

“We don’t say come and get your essay fixed here,” said Wik. “We’d be run off campus. The ownership of the essay is strongly in the hands of the writer. We focus on the writer’s process.”

The centre can help with brainstorming, choosing a topic, developing a thesis, organizing an essay, improving sentence structure, revising, citing sources and using reference material.

Laura Booi is a fourth-year psychology student who started using the centre after an experience in first year convinced her that she needed to brush up on her writing skills. “I had learned how to write an essay in high school and I wrote my first essay thinking it was an A paper. When I got it back I had failed,” she said.

Her instructor gave her the opportunity to redo the paper and suggested Booi visit the Writing Centre. “They really helped me out,” she said. “My writing improved substantially, my grades went up and my confidence in writing increased.”

She credits the Writing Centre for helping her win one of the 2007 Canada Millennium National In-Course Scholarships. “Dale helped me understand what they were really asking for – she took the time to walk me through everything.” Booi is graduating this year and intends to go on to graduate studies. “I’ll be here in a couple of months asking for help with my grad application.”

Wik said one role of the writing centre tutor is to listen. “Students usually have the answer they want, they just need to talk through the issue,” she said. “We’re concerned with the student as writer and learner - how to help the person sitting in front of us understand what it means to think and write in the university setting.”

The Writing Centre is open Monday to Friday and offers drop-in appointments Tuesday through Friday.   It also hosts workshops and the Bright Lights Book Night, a monthly book club for community and campus, in partnership with the English department. Check the website at www.viu.ca/writingcentre for more information.