The Taft Writing Center (TWC) has come into existence to serve the entire Taft community, including students and adults, as well as writers of all kinds and at all levels of proficiency.

The essential purpose is to develop the facility of individual writers and facilitate the development of the writing in which they are engaged.

The TWC will extend a helping hand to any writer, regardless of the writing project, but it is committed to not becoming a crutch that creates an ultimately limiting dependency. We want writers to realize their potential by becoming more informed, skillful, resourceful, facile, and confident in the writing process; we do not want writers to use the center as a substitute for the development of personal writing skills or to make writers appear to be more competent than they actually are on any given assignment or project.

Students might visit the writing center not only for feedback on academic writing, but also on writing concerning college applications; submissions to publications, such as the Pap, Red Inc., or the Free Press; morning meeting speeches or other oral presentations; applications for summer or vacation programs; or personal creative projects of fiction, drama, poetry or nonfiction.

I want to emphasize that the writing center welcomes all writers in the Taft community: the proficient as well as the less capable and confident writers; those working on personal, extra-curricular projects as well as those working on academic assignments. Although some writers will be referred to the writing center for assistance, we hope that as many or more will come on their own initiative.

Moreover, the TWC should not be a substitute for individual conferences between students and their respective teachers. It should be, rather, a supplementary resource coordinated with the teacher in the best spirit of collaboration, optimizing an individual’s progress and production as a writer by expecting conscientious and responsible engagement from the student, his or her teacher, and the writing center.

Finally, students should be aware that the TWC and the Learning Center perform significantly different services for the Taft community even though they will work in concert. With specialized training and experience, the staff of the Learning Center is qualified to address various aspects of a student’s capacity to learn and communicate. In contrast to the Learning Center’s more inclusive analysis and development of a student’s learning ability and style, the TWC has a more restricted purview. The writing center will focus more narrowly on developing the understanding and facility of writers at Taft. By concentrating principally on the skill of written expression (as well as the writing that precedes oral expression), the TWC will be able to provide more intensive and extensive instruction and training in this particular skill.

The Taft Writing Center is located on the second floor of the Wu Building in the Covington Conference Room, next to the computer lab at the top of the stairs. Trained and supportive tutors will be available to respond to your writing in the evening from 7:30 to 9:45 Sunday through Friday, and during the class day tutors will also be available during E and F blocks.