The Spanish Writing Center
The Spanish Writing Center (SWC) has closed for the summer.
The Spanish Writing Center is here to support students enrolled in SPN 320. Students can make virtual appointments to meet with a Spanish Writing Mentor who will help them with their Spanish writing and composition skills.
Our Mission
The Spanish Writing Center’s goal is to assist undergraduate students who are taking Spanish courses with their writing and composition assignments. We focus on providing a welcoming environment for students to ask questions, improve their communication skills, as well as to take the time to review their writing in terms of coherence, cohesion, and other aspects that are important for a particular writing assignment.
Overview
What writing mentors will do:
- Help you in the process of brainstorming ideas, preparing a draft, revising, and editing compositions.
- Provide one-on-one help and opportunities to ask questions.
- Help you develop skills to identify grammar and punctuation mistakes and improve your overall writing skills.
- Provide you with handouts and reference works on academic writing.
What writing mentors will not do:
- Proofread your assignment.
- Comment on grading or suggest the grade a paper might receive. (They can help students interpret and respond to professors’ comments.)
*Students who are not enrolled in SPN 320, please see the FAQ tab.
Shared Expectations
The SWC’s primary focus is on our students, and therefore we aim to welcome them as many times as feasible. Students can attend a maximum of 8 appointments per month (this total of 8 sessions is regardless of the length of the appointments and the writing mentor who leads the appointments). Students are responsible for attending their booked sessions or canceling them at least 24 hours in advance. See the FAQ tab on our website for information about how to cancel and reschedule appointments.
Students: What to expect?
We will not write the assignment for the student. Additionally, we are unable to guarantee any type of grade. While the Spanish Writing Mentors will provide feedback during the appointment, it is up to the student to decide what changes/feedback they utilize in their assignment. This also includes asking pertinent questions to their respective instructors prior to the submission of any assignment.
Please remember to cancel your appointment if you cannot attend. This is a free service that can be booked at least 24 hours in advance. If you need to reschedule/cancel your appointment, please do so as soon as possible to allow others to use that time slot. See the FAQ tab and the Student Handbook on our website for information about how to cancel and reschedule appointments. The deadline to cancel and/or reschedule your booking is six hours before the scheduled appointment time. Failing to do so through Bookings and/or through an email to your mentor, and/or not showing up to three appointments in a row will result in a 2-week penalization.
If shared expectations are not met by student visitors, the Spanish Writing Center staff will contact the student to discuss options for future visits.
The Spanish Writing Center abides by MSU’s general Academic Integrity guidelines. If Spanish Writing Mentors notice any sign of plagiarism during a session, they will notify the student immediately.
The SWC writing mentors are not responsible for identifying or flagging language that may have been produced with the help of AI. Spanish students, you must make sure you’re only using AI responsibly and in accordance with your course policies.
Instructors: What to expect?
The SWC does not report on student progress nor attendance directly to instructors due to its ethical implications. Under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), reports maintained internally by writing centers are considered education records, and thus require special handling (i.e., students’ consent). Therefore, we provide students with a visit summary that briefly describes what was discussed during the session. The student can then send the visit summary to their instructors should they wish to share that they visited the SWC.
SPN 320 Student Feedback
“[My Spanish Writing Mentor] was extremely helpful as well as friendly throughout the consultation. [Their] feedback was thoughtful, effective, and will help me as a writer in the future.”
“[My mentoring session] gave me a new idea that I wouldn’t have come up with myself.”
“My mentor was kind and helpful.”
“I feel like [my Spanish Writing Mentor] was very respectful and offered a lot of great advice to help my paper flow well.”