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Ameera Kamalrudin doesn\u2019t see Sweetland Center for Writing<\/a> as simply a place of employment. Instead, she calls it a \u201cspace to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n When I sat down with my friend Ameera, a senior studying psychology and linguistics, I was just expecting a general description of what it\u2019s like working as a Peer Writing Consultant. Instead, I left our Covid-19-forced video call with a new appreciation for everything Sweetland does.<\/p>\n Typically included on lists of the best student resources on campus, Sweetland has been doing writing outreach since the late \u201870s, with the peer tutoring program beginning in 1986. Today\u2019s student mentors are typically nominated by a professor, and they then take Writing 300; a class meant to teach them the theories of writing consultation, the history of Sweetland, and what is expected of them as consultants. Peer consultants are only allowed to begin working once this class, which also fulfills LSA\u2019s upper-level writing requirement, is completed. As they begin, they also take a one-credit practicum for some extra practice.<\/p>\n I asked Ameera what it\u2019s like helping with writing as a fellow student, rather than any sort of professor or professional writer. She told me that the classes they take before starting emphasize that it\u2019s not about having the \u201cupper hand\u201d when it comes to writing or knowing how to complete a specific assignment, but rather offering \u201cpeer-based guidance.\u201d She said she\u2019s not there to proofread or \u201ccorrect\u201d in the traditional sense, but rather help with the flow and show writers how to catch edits on their own. She told me that it can be hard to find ways to help when the writing seems really good, but \u201cno paper is ever perfect,\u201d and a lot of feedback can simply come from asking the writer if they\u2019re completely satisfied.<\/p>\n Along with learning how to guide other students in making their writing stronger, Ameera says these classes helped boost her self-esteem when it comes to writing. As a non-native English speaker, Ameera said she was nervous when starting out, but she\u2019s since learned that sometimes \u201cwriting is less about language\u201d and more about knowing the structure that make a paper good. She\u2019s said she\u2019s also learned to focus on her own strengths when it comes to writing, which, in Ameera\u2019s case, means making sure every paper includes strong transitions.<\/p>\n I then asked how this coronavirus thing is affecting Sweetland. A pained \u201cOh my gosh\u201d came from the audio of our BlueJeans meeting. However, it seemed like things are going fairly well for Sweetland\u2014all things considered. While they\u2019ve been using a video call format with the Online Writing Lab (OWL) for years, they\u2019ve also recently set up an asynchronous program called eTutoring.\u00a0 Ameera also had nothing but good things to say regarding the way management is handling the situation. Saying she has the \u201cbest boss anyone could ask for,\u201d she talked about how they\u2019re having regular staff meetings and how everyone\u2019s voice is being heard.<\/p>\n Ameera had a lot of great things to say about the three semesters she\u2019s spent at Sweetland. She talked a lot about the sense of community she feels there, saying it feels \u201creally good to be part of a team working at one of the most important resources\u201d on campus. She gets a lot of satisfaction from working there, noting especially her place as an international student. Ameera is from Malaysia, and she\u2019s found that casually mentioning this fact opens a lot of doors when it comes to working with other students who aren\u2019t native English speakers. She knows that her place at Sweetland has importance, and she hopes to encourage other international students to feel comfortable asking for help.<\/p>\n I learned a lot about Sweetland from my conversation with Ameera. Did you know you can take assignment prompts to Sweetland to work through ideas before you even have anything written? Or that they use their pre-existing framework and system of support to regularly team-up for events with other student organizations? Most importantly, though, I\u2019ve realized just what a valuable resource Sweetland is here on campus, both for students and the peer mentors who help make the community as supportive as it is today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ameera Kamalrudin doesn\u2019t see Sweetland Center for Writing as simply a place of employment. Instead, she calls it a \u201cspace to grow.\u201d When I sat down with my friend Ameera, a senior studying psychology and linguistics, I was just expecting a general description of what it\u2019s like working as a Peer Writing Consultant. Instead, Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[91,204,51,58,59],"class_list":["post-1118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-interviews-profiles","tag-english-department","tag-sweetland","tag-umich","tag-university-of-michigan","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1121,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions\/1121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/english-344-001\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}