UCA Writing Center

Writing Center Services

One-to-One Conferences with a trained consultant in the Writing Center who will read your work with a fresh pair of eyes: writers often get so close to their work that it becomes difficult to see where to go next. Writing Center consultants will read your work and give you a sounding board for developing ideas, rethinking organization, creating focus, strategizing research techniques, and more. Our writing becomes stronger by benefitting from feedback. Writing is meant to be read, so it is helpful to make use of a reader as we develop our projects.

Further, writers need readers throughout the writing process, from the idea generation stage, through the initial and later drafting stages where you map out an organization and develop ideas, all the way to the final stages including editing and constructing the works cited or references pages. The Writing Center is a free service for all UCA students, and we would love to work with you throughout the development of all your writing projects. You are welcome to come as often as you would like. You can make an appointment, or drop in. Appointments are given priority.

E-mail Conferencing: One way to integrate feedback into all stages of the writing process is to e-mail each draft, as it is developed, to one of our consultants. A consultant will read the draft and make a few suggestions to help you in the development of the next draft. There is a 48 hour turn-around time for e-mail conferencing.

E-mail Conferencing + Instant Message Discussion: Another option for integrating feedback easily into your writing process is to e-mail a consultant a draft; the consultant will e-mail back with comments, and then you can set up a time with that consultant to discuss the comments via Instant Message.

Writer's Hotline: If you are in the middle of a writing project, and you have a quick question, pick up the phone and call 450-5123 and ask a consultant.

Workshops on various writing topics

Book Club: Whitney Jones leads a book club every Tuesday from 4:30-5:30 in the UCA Writing Center, Thompson Hall 109. The current book is Neil Gaiman's Coraline. For more information, call Whitney at 450-5123.

Conversation Group: Come to the Writing Center every Friday afternoon at 4:00 to participate in a group conversation to practice English language skills. Contact Jonathan Dao for more information: 450-5123.

Tip Sheets containing guides for a variety of writing issues and techniques such as grammar, focus, and idea generation

Resource Books, including documentation guides, grammar handbooks, dictionaries, and textbooks

Writing Center History

The UCA Writing Center had a most humble beginning. The center, then known as the "writing lab," opened in 1980. Dr. Linda Bannister, who had previously been at two institutions with writing centers, became director of the Writing Lab; Rebecca Williams became its assistant director. The writing lab was located in a hallway off a single, huge room serving as temporary English faculty offices during renovation of Irby Hall, home to the English department since the 1960s.The "lab" consisted of a single file cabinet and two desks, with the two directors' desks located just inside the faculty office.

The directors and five tutors, both graduate and undergraduate students, assisted students with their writing. At that time, assistance consisted mainly of grammar instruction, and this focus lasted as long as did the department's competency test of basic grammar skills. When this test was phased out, the writing lab expanded its focus to include composing issues of both process and product.

In 1985, yet another change was made in the lab with the addition of computers. Face-to-face writing conferences continued, but students also had access to one-on-one assistance with computers. Graduate assistants in the lab designed a project--they named it Lorraine--to show students the connection between technology and writing. The Lorraine Program emphasized the stages in the writing process and how computers could facilitate the revising and editing stages.

Following a second renovation of Irby Hall (the original building was razed  and a four-story structure built in its place), the writing center moved to its current location, a large, many-windowed room on the first floor of a beautiful, new liberal arts building, Thompson Hall.

The name of the lab was then changed to the University Writing Center to reflect its purpose: to develop and support writing across the university by creating a central, shared space for writers at all levels in all disciplines. In the summer of 1996, the University Writing Program was established, and the writing center was moved under this program's aegis.

With the establishment of the university's Writing-Across-the Curriculum Initiative in the fall of 1996, the center broadened its support to include assistance to faculty as well under the directorship of Dr. Francie Bolter.  The Writing Center was renamed the University Center for Communication Support in 2003, and Sophie Bradford was named the new director until 2006, at which time Dr. Bonita Selting took over as Writing Center Director.

Now in 2007, the Center has become the UCA Writing Center under Director Dr. Joanna Castner Post and Assistant Directors Jennifer Deering and Laura Bowles. The UCA Writing Center has continued to grow, adding many exciting new projects such as its online e-mail and Instant Message conferencing, Conversation Group, a program begun with Jonathan Dao and Dr. Bonnie Selting to provide a space for informal English language practice, and professional development in writing instruction for faculty across the disciplines at UCA and for Arkansas high school teachers.