Inside Langston University’s Writing Center

The second floor of the G. Lamar Harrison Library houses more than just study pods and spare classrooms. Straight ahead from the elevator is a space filled with five wooden tables and a small desk that has a sign taped to it which reads, “The Writing Center.” 

Writing centers provide students with several resources, such as peer-to-peer tutoring and proofreading. The center allows students to seek out the help they need in their own time, and, if students are consistent, it can provide the guidance to help them flourish academically.

English professor and writing center advisor, Dr. Mick Howard, said, “When I got here, the first-year pass rate for our freshman students was 44%… and under this program…We’re consistently at the 70% range.”

This center is run by Howard, alongside a team of 10 student tutors who were selected from the honors program during their scholarship evaluation and four desk workers who maintain the organizational structure of the writing center.  

Sophomore english major and the second-in-command tutor at the writing center, Katrell Strain, said, “Howard took me in and allowed me to be a tutor, he really developed my love for writing… At first, I came here as a computer science major, but the more that I wrote for this class, the more I wrote around just in general here on this campus, as a tutor, just helping, it improved my writing, and seeing other people improve their writing just made me so excited.” 

According to Howard, the idea of being tutored can have a stigma around it; however, at Langston University’s writing center, they work hard to combat any worries students might have when receiving help.

Howard said, “You’re not a bad writer if you come to the writing center. Like, look, I’ve got, I have a PhD, not just in english, but specifically in composition, in writing, right? I always have people look at my work… It just means you’re getting an outside view.”  

English professor and writing center volunteer, Ciara Graham, explained that writing is a discipline that is unavoidable in whatever students plan to do. Regarding the significance of writing in her life, she said, “I think it’d be quicker to say how it hasn’t impacted my life… It’s just informing who I am as a person. Whenever I read something new, it’s changed my perspective, and whenever I read something that I wasn’t sure about, it’s encouraged me to learn and expand my horizons.” 

While only being in her second year here at dear Langston, Graham has found ways to get involved, having previously served as a writing center consultant herself. “My kind of train of thought was, if I am here, that helps bridge the gap between the kind of classes that I’m teaching and the support that I want students to have here.” 

Howard keeps support at the forefront of his mind when facilitating the writing center, whether that be the tutors or the tutees. Before Howard’s involvement in the writing center, it used to be known as a writing lab. This lab, as Howard describes it, was a replica of a computer lab, and students would input their paper into software that would give it corrections. However, since Howard has taken over the center, he has replaced these methods with relationship-based tutoring.

“The benefit of peer tutoring is that you understand the people who you’re tutoring…better than I ever could,” Howard said.

This understanding is a driving force for tutors like Strain, as he believes it is the crux of what makes them good at what they do. 

“A good tutor is the person that really understands your students. You can teach, you can tell people about English, you can tell them all the grammatical errors, but if you don’t know your student, you’re not going to be a good tutor.” 

College is notoriously difficult, and it can be easy to feel unsupported and isolated; however, places like the writing center that are for Langston students, by Langston students, do their best to aid those feelings.  

If interested, students can find the tutor assigned to their professor and make appointments through https://langston.mywconline.com. If they have any further questions or need help with this process, they can go to the writing center in person and ask for help at the front desk.

This center is here to make sure Langtson students know that they are not alone in their college journeys. So, the next time the possible impending doom of a writing assignment begins to set in, the second floor of the G. Lamar Harrison Library is there to help handle it.