Writing
As part of Yale’s effort to improve the quality of undergraduate writing, the Yale College Writing Center provides a Bass Writing Tutor in each of the twelve residential colleges. Each tutor is available for approximately ten hours a week to work with students on any writing project: course papers from across the curriculum, senior essays, graduate school and fellowship applications, or anything intended for publication. The Bass tutors (also known as the Residential College Writing Tutors) have substantial experience in drafting and revising prose—as classroom writing teachers or as professional editors and writers—and they provide an important resource for both students and faculty. Tutors usually meet with students by appointment on a one-to-one basis to discuss rough drafts of work in progress or essays already graded by instructors.
Another resource, called the Writing Partners, offers drop-in help with writing at the Writing Center, 35 Broadway. Writing Partners are Yale College or graduate school students selected both for their writing skills and for their ability to talk about writing. They can give feedback at any point in the writing process, from brainstorming to final revision.
Neither the Bass tutors nor the Writing Partners provide full editing or rewriting services. Their goal is to help students learn something about writing; the focus is more on the writer than on the particular paper being revised. But even this narrower focus can lead to greatly improved essays, and students who see a tutor for multiple sessions can make substantial progress as writers over time. Instructors who believe that a student’s work would benefit from additional help with writing should suggest that the student make an appointment with a Bass Tutor; no referral from an instructor or a dean is required. Students often begin with the tutor in their own college, although they are welcome to see tutors in other colleges and to visit the Writing Partners.
Some Bass tutors have special expertise in teaching English as a second language. While some ESL writers may need more specialized assistance, faculty members should still encourage students to meet with a residential college writing tutor. This is the best resource for assessing a student writer's needs. The Yale College Writing Center offers additional resources for ESL writers when required.
For more information about writing resources, visit the Writing Center Web site. Questions or suggestions about tutoring, or about other ways the Writing Center can help you and your students, should be directed to Alfred E. Guy, Jr., the R. W. B. Lewis Director of the Yale College Writing Center, 432-7492. Instructors who have concerns about the written work of a student whose first language is not English should contact Suzanne Young, assistant director, at 432-7519.
