Since November 2021, four students of the TU Dresden have been completing a qualification at the Writing Center that prepares them for their work as writing tutors. In a total of four modules, they have dealt theoretically and practically with the writing process and various writing methods, as well as acquiring and practicing the necessary tools for writing consultation. The modules "Writing scientific texts", "Basics of writing advice" and "The text in writing advice - giving feedback on texts" dealt with topics such as:

• What constitutes scientific style?
• How do I give constructive text feedback to other students?
• What are the approaches to reading scientific texts?
• What are the different types of writing?

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The prospective writing tutors not only learned about the theory, but also reflected on their own approaches. After the basics have been worked out in the winter semester 2021/2022, the new writing tutors will continue in the summer semester 2022 with the final module "Accompanied Practical Entry into Writing Consultancy". They will observe writing consultations before they start consulting themselves at the end of April - with the support of an experienced mentor team. In the summer semester, you will meet some new faces in the writing consultation.

One of these faces is Tobias Dittrich. He is studying for a master's degree in sociology and has recorded his experiences of academic writing during his studies and his impressions of the qualification as a writing tutor:

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"Scientific writing? Can't be that hard! I thought to myself when I stumbled from school into university. Now that I'm nearing the end of my studies, I'm taking part in the writing tutor qualification because I've had to struggle with so many different challenges around the writing process when writing my many university papers that I'd like to help other students deal with or prevent these difficulties.

To that end, much of our qualifying sessions consist of self-reflection. After all, before one can even think about helping other students with their writing, one should first develop an awareness of all that is involved in the process. And to figure that out, one first questions the most obvious source: one's own experiences. How do I go about writing my texts? Why this particular way? How well has it worked so far? Where do I encounter difficulties? And where did I get this approach in the first place? 

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In the exchange with Annica, Betty and Laureen, who are participating in the qualification together with me, I quickly realized how individual my own way of working is. Everyone writes differently. And that's perfectly okay! Because ultimately it's about being able to develop the best possible texts in accordance with your own preferences and habits. Of course, there were also certain commonalities or certain patterns that everyone seems to fall back on intuitively in one form or another. But the only real agreement was really that we all didn't really know how we had acquired our approach to writing in the first place. You just pick up a few things here and there, and then you have to construct your own idea of what it means to be able to produce good scientific texts. From here on, it's often trial and error.

In my experience, events that provide a basic introduction to the topic of academic writing and encourage students to exchange experiences and compare expectations between students and lecturers are rare in many degree programs or are not offered at all. So it is all too understandable that talking about one's own challenges in the writing process tends to be shied away from. - And yet everyone has to be able to do it without ever talking about it. And yet there is no reason to talk about it at all, because only the very few get through their studies without any writing difficulties. And by the way, talking about writing is really fun. Give it a try! We at the Writing Center would love to invite you to do so."

With this in mind, we wish you all a good and successful start to the semester!

In our web area you can find information about writing consulting.

You can find more information about all writing tutors and project staff of the Writing Center on the website of the Writing Center under "Team".

If you would like to know more about the qualification of the writing tutors, you can read the report on the kick-off of the qualification of writing tutors 2021 and have a look at the website on the qualification concept of the writing center.

Text: Annica Kramer

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)