By Megan Ward
Writing and Reading Center Coordinator
Co-Writing Director

You may have seen our video for students dispelling the myths of the Writing and Reading Center: that mean people will mock them for writing mistakes, yell at them, and shame them for daring to ask questions. However, we never fully answered what really does happen there.

Collaborative Learning:

Readers in the Writing and Reading Center are students at NMC, too. So they work collaboratively with students who visit the WRC to understand teacher expectations and complete assignments. Where Readers have knowledge of general writing conventions and usage, they expect students to have the specific knowledge from class regarding content and style. We ask them to meet us on common ground where we work with them to guide their writing instead of giving them all the answers. When we do this, we seek to help them learn through their assignments, working to make better writers, not just better writing.

Help at Every Step:

One common misconception is that students have to be done with their writing before they can visit. But we’ll help students at every step of the writing process – and that means even before writing has begun. It can be extremely beneficial for students to visit us right after they receive an assignment to make sure they understand expectations and to begin selecting a topic and planning next steps.

Reading Assistance:

Many times students aren’t struggling with content from classes as much as they struggle with accessing that content through reading. Unfortunately textbooks are often very dense and students struggle to find main ideas or manage reading loads. In addition to helping students write papers, we can also help students read texts from every discipline. After giving them suggestions and helping them navigate the reading, we can transition to moving them through a summary or integrating what they have learned into their writing.

Unique Help for Every Student or Class:

An advantage to being at a school the size of NMC and having a space like the WRC is that we are able to help each student uniquely, no matter their question or concern. We can also help each class in different ways depending on what you’d like. If there is something you’d like us to help your students focus on or a skill you see lacking within your class, let us know. We can mold our suggestions to help your students the most.

For more information on the NMC Writing Center visit the NMC Writing and Reading Center