Writing Center

Writing Support for International Students

International students make up roughly 6% of WOU's student population, yet they consistently comprise 30% of Writing Center visits.

The Writing Center at Western Oregon University has adapted to support the needs of the growing population of international students. We are actively

• Researching the needs of the international student population
• Creating workshops to support skill development
• Aiding faculty in working with international students

International Student Needs

International students who have limited experience studying in English will face difficulties as they learn to navigate course content in a second language with culturally different classroom expectations. Additionally, international students need to build skills in academic writing in order to be successful.

Understanding the needs of this population makes serving them in the Writing Center a more manageable task and creates more productive individual tutoring sessions. To that end, we are actively researching and focusing our knowledge of international student writing issues to create new directions for writing center theory and practice.

The Writing Center offers one-on-one writing assistance and skill development workshops to help international students improve their writing.

Specialized Workshops

Working with international students is an experience which differs from working with domestic students in important ways. While the Writing Center strives to prioritize global writing concerns, international students often have more sentence-level issues within their texts and more comprehension challenges with regard to assignments. Tutors find that among the more prevalent issues with international student writing, they are often faced with issues regarding

• sentence-level grammatical issues
• comprehension support for readings and assignment instructions
• difficulty with citing sources and copying segments of text that could be perceived as plagiarism

The Writing Center has developed supplemental instruction to specifically address these concerns.

Faculty Support

As international students seek to negotiate a new language and understand course content, faculty occasionally face challenges when meeting the needs of this student population. The director and professional staff in the Writing Center specifically aid faculty in promoting international student success by providing consultations and workshops to better understand the writing issues these students face.

We provide specific support by

• offering writing workshops that target the common writing issues of international students
• providing information on grading practices and rubrics which take the challenges of international students into consideration and provide an equitable system for all students
• discussing recommendations on issues related to the teaching of international students including the importance of vocabulary development and issues of plagiarism

Additionally, through specialized workshops and individual consultations, an English Writing Specialist for International Students serves as an academic and cultural resource for the international student population, the tutors who work with them in the Writing Center, and the faculty who teach them.

International Writing Specialist tutoring a student

English Writing Specialist for International Students

Dennis Butler

(503) 838-8259

Mission

International Students

To help international students adapt to American academic culture, the Writing Center offers the following programs:

• one-on-one tutorials
• developmental writing workshops
• discipline specific writing help through class partnerships

Faculty

To raise awareness of specific issues related to the writing of international students. we provide resources to promote the success of this student population.

• Partnerships with faculty to plan discipline specific writing help
• Workshops and presentations on issues related to teaching international students

Writing Center

At the Writing Center, we are diversifying our services to accommodate emerging populations at WOU. We are actively researching and focusing our knowledge of international student writing issues to create new directions for writing center theory and practice.

Contact

Writing Center 503-838-8286 | or e-mail: writingcenter@wou.edu