The Hub seeks to 'celebrate, not remediate' writing

By Joanne Santomauro

What was the best date you've ever been on? Prompts like these are presented to the Santa Clara community through The Hub Writing Center's monthly writing competition: "The Hub's Best." Participants submit their best responses in 50 words or less. The competition winner gets his or her work published on The Hub's website. At the end of the year, the writing center will host "The Hub's Best of the Best," in which the selected writing pieces from each month will stand against each other; the winning writer will receive a grand prize.

Director and founder of the writing center, Dolores laGuardia stated, "Writers deliver these 50-word shockers...we hold the writing contest to promote fun writing."

Since its inception two years ago, The Hub has undergone significant changes. Initially, The Hub was located in Varsi Hall, adjacent to the Undergraduate Admissions Office.

Now the Hub is located in downstairs Benson, room number 22.

Additionally, this year The Hub places writing partners in each residential learning community to serve as resources for on-campus residents who seek help with their writing.

In addition to a working staff of two to three writing partners at The Hub Writing Center, one will find a few cozy leather couches, complimentary tea and hot chocolate, and an array of books to help writers on various topics, from political science to research paper writing.

As well as being friendly to writers, The Hub also makes outstanding efforts to treat Mother Nature with all due respect.

The center is paperless and handout-less, featuring a SmartBoard in which students can project their papers from their laptops onto a whiteboard, and save written comments back on their digital documents.

laGuardia described the process of creating a warm, sophisticated environment for writers,

"My friend and I went through the furniture store; he had originally wanted to donate one chair for the writing center. After he visited (other universities) and saw the state that their writing centers were in — they were in dark, punitive places — he decided to donate all this furniture to us."

The writing center is intended to be a place to "celebrate, not remediate" writing, according to laGuardia. Writers are encouraged to meet with tutors at every step of the writing process as part of the Hub's mission to "make better writers, one paper at a time."

On laGuardia's blog post entitled "Pretty Good and Really Good Writers," she explains the importance of working with a writing partner.

"Really good writers are conscious writers, aware of the relationship between what they write and the intent of the task and the target audience...Really good writers seek out writing partners, other really good writers who can provide an objective perspective, something that's nearly impossible to do for oneself," she writes.

The Hub seeks to fulfill this mission. Writing partners are trained through ENGL 191: Practicum for Writing Tutors. Those who receive a B or higher in the class are eligible to apply to work in The Hub. In the class, potential writing tutors learn how to work with a variety of writing processes in a variety of styles, as well as how to explicate writing assignments and work with students to understand problem areas and achievements in their writing.

Junior Elena Naderzad is a Biochemistry major who tutors in the Hub.

"I transferred here and at first took the ENGL 191 class to fulfill my general education requirements, but working in The Hub just fell into place. I like helping others improve their writing skills, and it's helping me a lot with mine," said Naderzad.

laGuardia emphasizes how the writing center focuses on the growth of the writer.

"The Hub also serves to build writers' self-confidence. When students get low grades on papers, it feels like they [themselves] are getting a low grade. Every writer needs a partner, that's why we call them writing partners in The Hub, not writing tutors," said laGuardia.

The Hub is open from Sunday through Thursday from 3 p.m.-11 p.m.

Contact Joanne at jsantomauro@scu.edu or at (408) 554-1918.