The Writing Center works with everyone in the DePaul University community to support writers and to promote the use of writing in teaching and learning. Learn more about our historical context, and how that has influenced our mission, core values, beliefs, and practices—all of which inform the work we do every day. From programs and initiatives to each individual appointment. From our big-picture vision to our tutors’ work with writers.
The DePaul University Writing Center, part of the Office of Academic Affairs, promotes writer development, writing instruction, written texts, and the use of writing as a powerful learning and representation modality. Given writing’s ubiquity in educational, professional, creative, and personal contexts, the Center supports students, faculty, staff, and alumni with any writing project at any stage.
The Center aligns student support with authentic writing practices, such as seeking feedback and revising works in progress. Similarly, it helps instructors incorporate best practices for teaching and learning writing into their courses.
Using research-based approaches, the Center motivates writers and instructors to write, better understand writing’s role in their lives, and successfully complete assignments.
The Center recognizes that writing and learning to write reflect cultural history and values. It also acknowledges that historically, those with political and social power have used writing to marginalize certain groups. Therefore, the Center’s training, professional development, and work aim to make writing a force for shaping our future in ways that honor and celebrate diverse linguistic traditions.
Through initiatives like Peer Tutoring, the Writing Fellows Program, and Workshops, the Center creates space for collaboration, growth, and development as learners, teachers, and writers.
Staff members at the Writing Center are required—and empowered—to make decisions without direct instruction or supervision. To support Writing Center tutors in their work and to be clear and transparent about our expectations, Writing Center administrators—in collaboration with a wide range of tutors—have articulated certain Core Values, Core Beliefs, & Core Practices that all tutors can use to guide their work with writers and with one another.
Guiding Your Work
While we ask you to refer to and be knowledgeable about the policies and guidelines detailed in this handbook, we know we cannot foresee every situation in which you may find yourself. When confronted with unprecedented, challenging, or even everyday situations, Writing Center tutors can use our Core Values, Core Beliefs, and Core Practices to make good decisions that fulfill their responsibilities.
The Writing Center places certain institutional values at the core of our everyday work—values that guide and shape how we coordinate our central programs, how we interact with one another and the writers with whom we work, and how Writing Center administrators make decisions about Writing Center policies, expectations, and practices.