Writing Center Mission Statement
The Writing Center is first and foremost a teaching center. We are here to assist CSM community members in becoming more confident and capable at communicating their idea
s in writing. In order to help people in the process of achieving their writing goals, we work to enable them to learn how to write more effectively and to foster independence in writers.
We do this in several ways. Since most writers are more adept at conveying their ideas orally than in writing, writers benefit from discussing their ideas with an experienced writer; their oral abilities help create a bridge to strengthen their scribal ones. We also enable writers by demystifying the writing process, by relating the writing process to writers' learning styles, by breaking assignments into manageable parts, and by emphasizing the role of audience and purpose.
Since our mission is to empower writers, we do not work for them, but with them. For this reason, we do not copy edit papers for writers. Instead, we teach writers to be better proofreaders of their own writing through error pattern analysis, which entails:
• Identifying common reader distractions in their writing;
• Teaching strategies to improve those distractions;
• Providing guided practice at improving those distractions; and
• Encouraging independent practice followed by additional tutoring.
Faculty, students, and staff are welcome to use our services at any phase of their writing process, whether they have just received an assignment and are brainstorming for ideas or are in the final phases of their writing project. Our services are not limited to course-related assignments. Our faculty are here to work with writers working on any type of writing, including scholarship applications, résumés, and engineering reports.