Writing Across Cultures

Claire Do’s writing in her first-year composition class was so strong that her professor recommended she apply for a job as a consultant in Howe Writing Center at Miami University in Ohio. When Do, an accounting major from Vietnam, went to the website to apply, she saw that the center had a new counterpart on campus: the English Language Learner (ELL) Writing Center.

“I like that it’s for international students—students like me,” Do says.

Do, who has studied English since she was 5 years old, is familiar with the challenges of being a multilingual writer, which helps her relate to the international students with whom she works. Vietnamese and Chinese speakers, for instance, might make the same errors when writing in English because of similar grammatical structures in their native language. “I can identify the problems that international students may have because I understand where they come from,” she says.

Campus writing centers have always provided academic support for any student who needs help with writing assignments. But the growing number of international students on some campuses has placed new demands on writing centers, causing directors to rethink training, services, and partnerships across campus. Consequently, writing centers serve as prime sites for collaboration between writing faculty and international offices.

Bolstering a Critical Resource

Launched in 2018, Miami’s ELL Writing Center was created to support the university’s commitment to comprehensive internationalization and foster a sense of inclusion for the 3,000 international students on campus. 

While the ELL Writing Center is unique