“You learn more when you need to learn it,” observed Sara Van den Berg, English department faculty member, in reference to the new Parks College Writing Center Satellite. The Parks satellite and the John Cook School of Business satellite are two-week-old extensions of Saint Louis University’s already-established Writing Center. These facilities aim to assist SLU engineering and business students in their journey toward finding fulfilling employment.

Van den Berg, an expert on Ben Johnson, John Milton and 17th-century literature, noticed a trend while listening to students from Parks College and the Cook School of Business. She noticed that business, engineering and nursing students maintained packed schedules that often allowed space for only one writing course: English 190.

As these pre-professionals advanced and requested further writing assistance, they found that more English courses were incompatible with their packed agendas. Van den Berg theorized that “targeted assistance” would conveniently and pragmatically meet students’ needs.

In early summer 2005, Van den Berg approached the deans of Parks College and John Cook School of Business. Because the Writing Center, located near the Humanities building, is difficult for engineering and business students to access, Van den Berg proposed founding Writing Center satellites on the colleges’ “home turf.” The Parks College and Cook School deans readily accepted Van den Berg’s proposal, citing that students needed more than one year’s training in writing to reach maximum potential for gainful employment. Each satellite receives funds from its respective school, but the Writing Center provides the literary support.

The Writing Center, in operation since 1984, is a branch of Student Educational Services. A bastion for campus scholastic empowerment, SES provides academic advising, peer counseling and tutoring as well as writing assistance. The Writing Center is available to all undergraduates and assists with projects such as term papers, research assignments, PowerPoint slide shows, oral presentations and Web site construction.

The Writing Center also provides custom workshops for student groups. A pre-law group, for example, may request specialized assistance in writing personal statements for Law School applications. Other groups may want help proofreading mission statements or creating Web sites. The Writing Center caters to the rhetorical needs of each association individually.

Students may schedule appointments with Writing Center consultants or may “walk-in” at their personal convenience. For these appointments, students bring initial ideas and subject knowledge, center coordinator Sue Mendelsohn explains, and consultants bring the writing expertise. Staff members refer to themselves as consultants rather than tutors, Mendelsohn said. “We like to look at it as a partnership. It’s just like a business consultant helping you with your business.”

During a typical appointment, a student first discusses his or her area of interest. Next, the student and consultant work with material the student brings in. Some students come in with a rough draft already written; others come with a blank assignment sheet, asking for assistance throughout the project, from brainstorming to completion. Instructors help students with research and resources, dictate while a student works through ideas, construct outlines with a student and check works for grammatical accuracy. The bottom line, asserts Mendelsohn, is that “when students leave the Writing Center, they take away skills to use in later projects.”

Mendelsohn continued, “I’m very excited about this year’s staff.”

Personnel stationed at the Academic Resources Center hold master’s degrees and teach writing courses, and at each satellite location is a graduate student working toward a Ph.D.

Fall semester hours at the Center’s main location, the Academic Resources Center, span from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Parks College satellite (McDonnell Douglas Hall 1004) is open from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays and 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Wednesdays. The business school’s satellite (Cook 137) is open Mondays from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Wednesdays from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., and Thursdays from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.

The Library satellite (Pius XII Library 401) provides extended evening hours from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Students may call 977-2930 to schedule a Writing Center instructor consultation.