Posted in Writing skills.

The “language center,” and support for the student

Written by Dave Brooks on .

Dissertation season’s over once again, and even after all these years I’m surprised by the range of approaches academic institutions take to ensuring their students can write well in English.

There are students who do get support over the years, and a proofreader like me is just left to deal with a few bad (writing) habits and some genuine, accidental errors.

Other students get little or no support , but are still expected to deliver 100 pages of perfect text in a language that isn’t their own.

The rapid growth in the number of “language centers” at academic institutions over the last ten years or so is almost certainly a good thing, on paper at least. But the language center’s watchword, “We provide everything our students and faculty need,” often doesn’t seem to be reflected in the quality of writing that results.

This isn’t, of course, necessarily the fault of the language center.

But a tree is “known by its fruit.” And real and regular language support for students requires, in my experience, more than a little more attention than it currently receives.

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