By Maitri Lalai
The AUS Writing Center is a student-led entity dedicated to developing students’ writing proficiencies in the English language. Our tutors embody themselves– peers of their fellow AUS students and alumni– as they aid the latter in their evolution as writers. Not only do our peer tutors cater to academic assignments and coursework, but they also support writers working on personal projects, applications to universities and/or professional endeavors, and practically any piece of original writing!
Our peer tutors undertake semester-long training under the tutelage of Dr. Maria Elefttheriou, Director of the AUS Writing Center, by enrolling in the course ‘WRI221: Peer Tutoring in Writing.’ During their training, tutors adopt and discuss various peer-tutoring strategies and inculcate the practices of absorbing and sharing feedback, maintaining confidentiality, working on various aspects of writing including grammar and punctuation, brainstorming ideas, organization and cohesion, citations and technical requirements in writing, and several other requirements of students as they come. This training is dispersed through group projects, seminars, and lectures through the length of the course.
Peer tutors are starkly different from academic instructors in their methods of providing constructive feedback and facilitating the writing process for their peers. They use a non-directive approach which encourages students to think independently and arrive at answers to their questions on their own. The role of peer tutors is to ask guiding questions and build students’ confidence as they explore the many levels of writing in English.
We welcome you to utilise the services of the AUS Writing Center, including one-to-one peer tutorials, writing workshops, and calls for submissions to annual publications and competitions. Reach out to us at [email protected], visit our website at www.aus.mywconline.com, or come say hello at LIB-019.
Happy writing!