Ramapo’s Center for Reading and Writing has moved to a new location on the second floor of the library. The move from the hard-to-find E-wing corridor only took about a day, and the new Center for Reading and Writing is now up and running.
“I think it’s great,” said Tom Kitchen, director of the Center for Reading and Writing. “It’s a really nice space, both the consultants and the students seem to feel more comfortable in it.”
The new location for the Center for Reading and Writing does not house space for math help; however all other services are still the same and readily available.
“Students can walk in and sign up for an appointment. If we have consultants available, they can sit right down,” Kitchen said.
Students are able to make an appointment ahead of time as well.
“Most Ramapo students seem to prefer to walk in, so that is how we are structured,” Kitchen said.
Any type of reading and writing assignments are welcome.
“We hope students come in with more prewriting as well as a draft; however, students should not feel discouraged from coming in because we want to help them get to that point,” said Stevie Rand, a senior and second-year tutor.
The center’s tutors can help Ramapo students with any type of reading and writing assignment.
“What we see most commonly is critical reading and writing, reading and humanities, and first year seminar, but we’re available to help anyone,” Kitchen said.
Rand agreed.
“They can come in for something beyond a draft,” she said. “I think most students think they can’t come in unless they have a first draft, but anything before that is great, even up to the reading if they don’t understand the reading, we’re happy to help with that.”
As willing as tutors are to help, the center hopes to make them as independent as possible.
“The idea is to teach students to work on their own,” Kitchen said. “That’s our goal.”
Students entering the center can expect to have a one-on-one tutoring session with a highly qualified consultant for up to 40 minutes at a time.
“All we ask is that they bring a copy of the assignment and any related materials, if there are any readings associated with it or any work that they’ve done, an outline or draft. The more a client brings the better we can help them,” said Kitchen.
All tutors went through a vigorous training session a week before classes began.
“It was a 9 to 5,” Rand said.
“We basically went through each step. We got an assignment and went through every single step of the prewriting process, which culminated in us writing our own drafts and at every point we would stop and do a few role plays. We did a lot of reading tutoring too. So basically if the student comes in and cannot grasp the material, then we can help them with that also.”
More students have been coming into the new center and it is highly recommended by other students.
“Now that the center is revamped, it’s a much more comfortable learning atmosphere, and it’s much easier to find,” said sophomore Stephanie Buckman.
The center will be holding various workshops throughout the semester, such as the thesis statement workshop they held earlier this week. To find out more about the workshops, check out the center’s website at ww2.ramapo.edu/crw.
“It’s been a big morale boost,” Kitchen said. “We really like it here.”
—
smucha@ramapo.edu
