From Consulting to Mentoring: The Writing Center and the Classroom

In the fall semester of 2005, I became one of the first consultants from the Undergraduate Writing Center (UWC) at the University of Texas at Austin to be hired for a pilot program of the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Initiative: the Writing Mentors Program. Rhetoric professor Joan Mullin directs the program with assistance from Susan “George” Schorn, UT’s WAC coordinator. The program seeks to improve students’ writing as well as studentinstructor communication through the role of the writing mentor. The writing mentor is highly trained in writing; typically, writing mentors are recruited from the UWC and have experience tutoring students in a one-on-one setting. The mentor is assigned to a writing-intensive class; he or she attends all class sessions, tutors the students in writing, and meets with the professor to discuss goals and challenges relative to the students’ writingUniversity Writing Cente