The New College Writing Centre (NCWC) offers various programs and services, including one-on-one sessions and drop-in spaces with expert instructors to help you develop your thinking and writing at university.
”The goal of the New College Writing Centre is to create interconnected, nourishing, and welcoming writing communities for the students, faculty, staff, and alumni of New College. By achieving this goal, we hope that all members of our community will view New College as their writing home.
Dr. Marci Prescott-BrownDirector, New College Writing Centre
Meeting with one of our friendly instructors is truly an effective way of transforming your writing, whether you are working on your very first university essay or your first publication. We work with students at all stages of the research and writing process, across all fields of study, and on all genres of assignments, including multimodal assignments, oral presentations, lab reports, analytic and reflective essays, business reports, policy briefs and research proposals, grad school applications, and much more. We welcome students of all linguistic backgrounds; whether you speak English only, are a multilingual student for whom English is an additional language, or know many additional languages/language varieties, we look forward to working with you! We also work with students learning to integrate GenAI into any aspect of the writing process.
”Some of my deepest learning happens in the Writing Centre. The one-on-one appointments offer an opportunity not only to improve my academic and creative writing skills but also to engage with fellow scholars in conversations that test my understanding of course material and enhance my ability to think critically.
Fourth-year Women & Gender Studies major
Our free one and one 50-minute sessions (online or in-person) are geared to you, the student. You can come see us with just the ideas in your head (not on paper yet), or with a rough draft that you’d like feedback on. Got feedback on a paper graded by your instructor or the teaching assistant and want to learn how to improve your work in the future? Bring your paper to us and we can chat together about what you could strengthen in your writing for future assignments. Visit us early in the term to get your year off on the right track!
We also offer drop-in spaces: the Writing Zone, the CAESS Writing Group, and our QT Write-Ins, where you can work alongside your peers to get assignments done.
Students tell us that “part of writing successfully is having a safe place to do [it]” which they feel the writing room provides. They “love the inclusive and welcoming environment” and having a space “to focus and work independently.”
Throughout the academic school year, we host events such as Write Night and offer writing strategy workshops to help you get ahead of end-of-term assignments.
What students have told us:
Feedback on the CAESS Writing Group:
“[In the CAESS Writing Group] I was able to feel more confident in writing papers and felt the support. It was incredibly useful to have Mikayla [Librarian] walk me through the research process and then switch over to Marci [Writing Instructor] and get that support with the paper itself. Writing a paper can feel very overwhelming and stressful, but through the writing group, I was able to manage my time to finish my papers with confidence.”
“[The CAESS Writing Group] helped me have a place to share my ideas for papers or research and provides helpful feedback. Also, the facilitators are a great resource for improving writing and research skills.”
“I love having a place where I know people are working on similar projects as me. A supportive writing community makes all the difference and there is not a group like [the CAESS Writing Group] this in my two other programs”
“This writing group has been so helpful to me. I don’t think I would have succeeded had it not been for [CAESS]. I’m very grateful.”
Feedback on the QT Write-Ins:
“The [QT Write-Ins offer] a very positive and uplifting space, which I think is important when I am stressing over assignments and deadlines.”
“This is one of the few academic spaces I look forward to every week. It’s all good vibes and good energy.”
“The [QT Write-Ins are] always welcoming; a safe space to connect with others and forge community.”
Feedback on The Writing Zone:
“I loved having “the ability to have a dedicated space to focus on writing while having easy access to Writing instructors when needed” – Janin, Immunology
“The environment overall is good for reading and writing and it’s nice to see the instructors (in my opinion); even if they aren’t helping with a specific task, they’re pleasant and there’s always some sort of good discussion.” – Humberto, History
“I think the one-on-one help was extremely useful because I was able to get a lot of work done [and] get my structure properly set up.” – Student, Sociology
“The instructor helped me get into the implications of different wording that would potentially impact my application.” Student, Grad School Application
