English Language Writing Center Proposal- Suzhou University of

Science and Technology

Nick Vetri

The Proposal: We would like to create an English-language writing center on Shihu Campus at
Suzhou University of Technology. The lab would be open each Thursday from 4:30pm - 6:30pm
and would be open to all students at the school. The purpose of the lab would be to help students
become better writers by guiding their writing process, helping them with the organization and
format of their writing, and secondarily to help them correct and point out difficult or abstract
grammar rules in English. The lab would give students an opportunity to have detailed, 1-on-1
feedback and guidance on their writing, and it would also provide the school with a valuable
service: international graduate school admissions application writing guidance and revision.

Target Population: Although the lab would be open to all students on campus, the target
population would be undergraduate and graduate students in the English Department and
International Studies Department. The reasons for this are that first, These two groups of students
will use English writing in their studies and graduate admissions procedures, so it will be of the
most use to them. The second is that the teachers volunteering their time for this writing center
are international teachers who are not proficient in Mandarin writing, so they would be unable to
help students in their Mandarin writing. If successful we will consider expanding the writing
center to include writing assistance for Mandarin from local teachers willing to offer their time.

The Need for an English-Language Writing Center:

Many students in the English and International Department have poor writing, organizational
skills, and grammatical writing skills in their second language, English. My colleagues and I
have seen frequent examples from students in both departments who seem to lack a basic
understanding of essay writing, organization in writing, and understanding of the registers of the
English language. This is a somewhat understandable issue because of some of the challenges
secondary education teachers face in the Chinese education system. According to Dong et al.:
…Because of the national unified literacy curriculum, literacy teachers in China are required to

administer classes based on the national mandated textbooks, and by the end of each semester,

students have to take the district-wide high-stakes test, which covers most of the content in the

textbook. Moreover, since nobody dares to fail

the “once-in-a-lifetime” high-stake college entrance exam, some high school literacy teachers in

China even start to prepare students for this critical test at the beginning of high school. It

appears inevitable that “teaching to test” writing instruction is prevailing among students’

learning experiences in China, especially in high schools. Test-centered writing instructional

climate detaches students’ writing from their

personal lives and makes it challenging for students to develop positive attitudes, interest, and

intrinsic motivation for writing. (Dong et. al., 2019).

What’s more, the average number of students per major group (students take major classes as a
major group that goes to all the classes except for electives together) is 30-40 students. This
means that it can be extremely difficult for students’ teachers to give detailed feedback on an
individual level during writing classes when they see upwards of 250 students a week. Finally, a
significant number of the students in the International Studies Department study abroad each
year, yet there are no professional resources available on campus to help them with their
international college admissions writing tasks. This writing lab would provide these students
with that valuable resource and help them to improve their writing before pursuing graduate
studies abroad.

Writing Center Teaching Philosophy:

The writing center staff will work as collaborators with students and not evaluators. They will
work one-to-one with students to help them find their own ideas and guide them through the
writing process (Harris, 1988). The central focus of this writing center is to help students find
their own answers and give suggestions about writing choices and format. The purpose is not to
correct students' grammar and form in language for the sake of accuracy alone in academic
writing. That said, important and difficult grammar mistakes will be pointed out to students
because pointing out mistakes to multilingual students is important to their awareness of
grammar and language usage (Diab, 2005).

Staffing: 4 English teachers (Whitney VanAlders, Victor White, Mike Johnson, and I) have
agreed to spend 2 hours a month working at the writing center. Each teacher will be at the
writing center at 4:30pm - 6:30pm on Thursday afternoon. This is a time when very few classes
are scheduled, and it will allow teachers to go to the writing center after class without making an
additional commute to the campus to volunteer. For peak times, like when students are preparing
for the IELTS exams and during the application process when students are applying for graduate
programs abroad, graduate students in the English department will be invited to volunteer.
During these times having 2-3 people staffing the writing center would be the target.

Funding: All the teachers and students involved in this proposal have volunteered two hours of
their time per month. There is no additional funding necessary for paying a salary to any
members of the writing center staff. Teachers or students will bring their own laptop computers
or devices to the lab. We would require use of the activity room (Room 206) in the International
Studies Department each Thursday afternoon from 4:30pm- 6:30pm. Any needed materials or
supplies for the lab should be reimbursed by the International Studies Department.

Awareness: We ask that the English department and International Department send out a group
post to their respective wechat groups informing all the teaching staff involved that this resource
is open to all of their students. We will also have one teacher from the staff participate in the
semesterly activity fair and open a booth to spread awareness with students about this resource.
Finally we will post flyers about the writing center on the first floor of the library, and in the C4,
C5, C6, Language Labs, and #14 teaching buildings, where English Department and
International Studies Department students have the majority of their classes.
 References

Diab, R. L. (2005). Teachers’ and Students’ Beliefs About Responding to ESL Writing: A Case
Study. TESL Canada Journal, 23(1), 28–43. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v23i1.76

Dong, R., Fu, D., Zhou, X., & Wang, B. (2019). Writing Instruction in China: Challenges and
Efforts. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 9(10), 715–723.
https://doi.org/ 10.18178/ijiet.2019.9.10.1292

Harris, M. (1988, September). SLATE (Support for the learning and teaching of English)
statement:The concept of a writing center. The National Council of Teachers of English.
https://teachnowprogram.com/amazon/getS3File?file=https://platform-user-content.s3.us-west-2.
amazonaws.com/activity_resources/Writing_Center_Concept.pdf