The UWC is online, and that’s something you might want to share with your students. You already know about our website (writingcenter.tamu.edu), but maybe you didn’t know we’re also on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. One of our main goals is to put writing and public speaking into the spotlight at Texas A&M, showing conspicuously that the university community values communication skills. Our posts on Twitter and Facebook are meant to educate and connect students to events and observations centered on writing and public speaking, on campus, in the news, and around town. We share information about happenings, we link to how-to articles or blogs, we give short, memorable tips, and we post jokes or quotes about writer’s block, stage fright, and all the other challenges we face as communicators.
We hope our presence on the web and in social media will encourage students to use our consulting services, because we believe that every writer needs the kind of feedback we can provide. Once students become familiar with us via social media, we hope they’ll get a better sense of who we are, how we help, and that we work with good writers, not just struggling ones. We hope social media can break down some of the barriers that prevent them from contacting us.
Then there’s a pedagogical goal behind our online presence: to tap into another means of education about writing and public speaking. Most students won’t ever take the time to attend a consultation. That’s not only true here at Texas A&M, but nationally. Most writing centers report that their number of consultations equals about 10% of their campus’ student population. At 9,124 visits in the 2012-13 academic year (not including this coming summer), we can say the same here at Texas A&M University. If we count by individual student visitors and not by consultations, the total is lower, namely, 4,282, some 740 less than 10% (based on an estimated 50,227 for fall 2012). Yes, that percentage will rise by summer’s end, but frankly, although we may wish to attract more than 10 percent of our students, and although we’ll keep trying to increase that number, it will always be significantly less than our total student population.
How do we reach that majority who are convinced they can get along without consultations? We still have a lot to offer such as the workshops on writing and public speaking we bring to classes and organizations or our special programs for graduate students working on dissertations. However, most accessible is the material on our website. If students click on the “For Students” menu, they’ll see a section labeled “Handouts, Videos and Audio Broadcasts on Writing and Speaking,” or they can use the search box to find a topic. They’ll find short explanations on many common writing/speaking issues, for example how to write an outline for a speech, how to fix dangling and misplaced modifiers, or how to write specific documents like executive summaries, essay exams, or research posters. We even have advice on making good presentation slides or how to use your body in delivering a speech. These are resources students can read whenever they need them, independent of our location or operating hours. In fact, if you have a topic you’d like us to add to our handouts, just let me know, and I’ll try to develop something.
I invite you to follow us on Twitter and Pinterest, and like us on Facebook. If you see any value there, ask your students to follow or like us, too. Yes, they’ll see jokes about grammar and cute kittens wearing glasses, but we also promise posts on why writing matters and tips for giving a good speech or writing a great essay.