The MWCA Bright Ideas Conferene will be held Saturday, October 4 on the campus of Madonna University in Livonia. Prior registration is encouraged but not required.
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The International Writing Centers Association conference will be held October 30 - November 1, 2008 in Las Vegas. Pre-conference workshops will take place Wednesday, October 29. The reduced rate registration deadline is October 24.
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Has your contact information changed? Please visit the Membership link to view your current contact information. Use the Contact Us link or send a message to penninj@lcc.edu to inform us on any changes.

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Profile: The Writing Center, Saginaw Valley State University

The Saginaw Valley State University Writing Center opened in the Fall of 1996. In Winter 2005, the Writing Center moved to its current location, 123 Science East. We are conveniently located near the library and the Math Resource Center. The Center has five computers available for student use, along with an attached seminar room with a projection system for tutor training sessions and writing workshops. All record-keeping is handled electronically.

The Writing Center employs 20 to 24 mentors each year who work anywhere between four to fifteen hours per week. Starting pay for mentors is $7.50, with raises based on length of service. All mentors are given full use of the Writing Center’s computers and printers, and they are provided funding to register for regional and national conferences, to give presentations and papers based on their work in the Center. New mentors go through a day-long intensive training program, followed by one month of subsequent dialogues, based on readings and their observation of experienced mentors, before beginning to tutor independently. In addition to the tutors, the Writing Center staff includes the Writing Program Director (who is also the Director of Instructional Support Programs) and the Writing Center Coordinator. The staff also includes Teachers in the Center--faculty across the disciplines who volunteer their time in the Writing Center to tutor student writers.

The Writing Center is open throughout the year, with extended evening hours Monday through Thursday. In addition to providing 1,500-2,000 individual tutoring sessions each semester, the Writing Center provides a variety of other services to the university, including introductory sessions for all English 080 and 111 courses, online tutoring for students and faculty, coaching sessions for the MTTC (Michigan Test for Teacher Certification), and a comprehensive website that provides links for MLA/APA documentation, plagiarism, and other writing-centered issues.

The Writing Center at SVSU has become a vital service on campus. We continue each year to provide instruction across disciplines and class standing. Roughly one quarter of the students we serve are freshmen, the rest fairly equal numbers of sophomore, junior, senior, and graduate students. And we serve these students well: over 98% of the students who utilize the Writing Center rate our services as “excellent” or "good."

More information about the SVSU Writing Center is available at www.svsu.edu/writingcenter.