News

Fall 2009 Writing Contest Winners!

The AUS Writing Center would like to thank everyone who participated in the Spring 2010 Writing Center Contest.

The first prize goes to Ali Osama Saoud for his story "Still in Parallax"

The second prize goes to Yousef Abu-Ghaidah for his story "Rocket in the Sky"

Congratulations to the winners!

Become a Writing Center Tutor

The Writing Center at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) is a place where students assist students. Along with serving as a portal for student employment, it gives undergraduates the opportunity to help other students with their writing assignments and hone their own skills during peer-tutoring.
Tutees are provided with a diverse range of tutors, who are from a number of different nationalities and thus, are multilingual. There are currently 24 writing center tutors, who work between three to 15 hours a week. Their majors range from Mass Communication to Chemical Engineering.

The tutors are students recommended by the professors of the Department of Writing Studies. They are proficient in English and have excellent writing skills. In order to be hired at the Writing Center, the students are required to take a peer-tutoring course, WRI 221. The course serves as training and students who do well are appointed as tutors.

Most of the tutors say they are adept in English because they read a lot. Sahar Soomro, a senior majoring in mass communication and international studies, says that reading and writing made a lot of difference for her. She adds that her English got better with a lot of work and practice. Michelle Dias, finance major, and Sana Arshad, a public relations and journalism student, also think reading contributed greatly towards their improvement in language.

Each tutor has their own reasons for joining the peer-tutoring program. For some it is the money, for most it is the love of writing, while others join because they enjoy helping students.

Arshad enjoys tutoring and one of the reasons she joined the program is that she likes the job description: “I had a job on campus before, but it was mechanical.” She says that the work at Writing Center, in contrast, gives her more leeway in terms of doing her job. There are rules, she adds, but you can be creative with your own ideas, while following them.  

Soomro says that it feels great to be able to help others. “You contribute to help people feel relaxed about their paper,” she adds. In addition to being able to help out, Dias says that she enjoys interacting with students. “You get to mix with a lot of interesting people,” she reveals. “It’s a lot of fun and is a good working relationship.”

“Working at the Writing Center is a new thing every day,” says Arshad. Each day, different students come with different types of papers and perspectives. This challenges the tutors during every peer-tutoring session, making it exciting and fresh. The essays vary in terms of content, style and reasoning. She calls the essays “a secret window into the minds of AUS students.”

by Sidra Tareq

INTERESTED IN BEING A WRITING CENTER TUTOR?

All you have to do is enroll for the peer-tutoring course, WRI 221

and contact Maria Eleftheriou at meleftheriou@aus.edu.

Prerequisites of WRI 221: WRI 101 and 102

Concurrent: ENG 203 or 204