Writing Center Teaching Assistants (usually called tutors) describe working here as one of the most positive aspects of their graduate experience. Many tutors like teaching in the Writing Center because it allows them to work with student writers across the disciplines, provides them with a new kind of teaching experience, helps them develop their own writing skills, and gives them a TA stipend without the take-home work of grading and class preparation. Since we hire TAs from a wide variety of disciplines, tutors also get to know a new group of people in a context distinct from the one their departments provide. Many former tutors have found their experiences at the Writing Center useful during their search for academic jobs, as colleges and universities value faculty who are trained in teaching writing.
Writing Center tutors work 15 hours per week. You'll never work less than that, but you'll never need to go over, either. Most Writing Center hours are spent tutoring students one-on-one in fifty-minute appointments. Tutors also attend our weekly staff meeting, give writing workshops, engage in projects, and participate in reflection activities.
The Writing Center is open Sunday from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM, Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Before each semester begins, tutors submit schedule request sheets. The directors then create a work schedule that meets tutors' needs and provides coverage in the Center. Tutors work at least four days a week. Tutors must be available to work at least one evening (5 p.m. to 8 p.m.) per week; you may not be called upon to work in the evening every semester, but we need to distribute these hours fairly among the staff. Once the schedule is set, tutors swap shifts with each other when they need to attend conferences or fulfill personal commitments.
We strongly prefer that TAs work for us for at least a year. But funding sometimes shifts during the year, enabling us to hire additional tutors—so if you might be interested in working for a single semester, feel free to apply, or contact us for more information.
Yes and no. Like you, we want to help students become better writers. Tutoring differs from classroom teaching in that tutors don't write on students' papers or assign grades. Tutors spend time listening, asking questions, and discussing choices as writers brainstorm, draft, and refine sentences. Working one-on-one allows tutors to tailor instruction to students' concerns.
In the past, Writing Center tutors have sometimes simultaneously taught courses in their own departments. This year the Writing Center is seeking to hire graduate students who will not be working more than 5 hours per week elsewhere on campus during the fall or the spring, in order to comply with the Graduate School's policies regarding graduate student employment. Tutoring for a year can be a great way to develop your skills as a writing teacher, broaden your teaching experience, learn more about what is happening in courses across campus, add to your personal toolbox of writing strategies, make connections with grad students outside your department, and stretch your departmental funding or allotted sections a bit further.
Yes. To work at the Writing Center, you must be a full-time, degree-seeking student in residence in a graduate program at UNC-Chapel Hill. You must be enrolled during the semesters in which you will work as a tutor (being enrolled in dissertation credit only is o.k.). If you do not meet these criteria but are interested in working as a tutor, you may wish to place an ad on our "Help for Hire" page.
The Writing Center does not have its own pool of money for tuition remission, so whether our tutors receive remission depends on the policies of their individual departments. Some departments give tuition remission to anyone who is a university teaching assistant; tutors from those departments do receive remission, as we are happy to testify that they are TAs for us. Other departments give tuition remission only to students teaching in the home department, only to people in their first five years of graduate study, etc.; tutors from those departments don't receive tuition remission unless they meet their home departments' conditions.
The Writing Center staff includes five full-time professionals: a Writing Center Director (this position is currently vacant); Dr. Vicki Behrens, Interim Director and Assistant Director; Dr. Gigi Taylor, ESL Specialist; Nigel Caplan, ESL Specialist; and Chris Newsome, Administrative Assistant. Twelve to sixteen graduate student Teaching Assistants from across the curriculum tutor with us each semester, and several undergraduate Office Assistants serve as receptionists.
If you'd like to speak to one of our TAs, we'll be happy to connect you with someone on our staff. Please also feel free to contact the Interim Director, Dr. Behrens, at pixie@email.unc.edu or 962-4799.