In this section, you will find many instructional materials we’ve developed for our Writing Center teaching.
However, there are limitations to these materials. Assignments vary, and different instructors want different things from student writers. Therefore, the advice here may or may not apply to your writing situation.
Finally, handouts can give only a fraction of the customized guidance that an individual conference with a Writing Center instructor can provide. If you have questions about the information in our handouts, please make an appointment to see a Writing Center instructor.
Disclaimer inspired by Other People’s English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, and African American Literacy
The approach of this section is descriptive rather than prescriptive. A descriptive perspective entails to examine how language systems (e.g., English, Italian, Quechua) and language varieties (e.g., dialects, registers, sociolects) function both internally and externally, in consonance with social, cognitive, and cultural factors. A prescriptive approach involves the perpetuation of one language system (e.g., Latin as the lingua franca during the Early Modern Period) or one language variety (e.g., the Standard English) as “inherently superior” to other systems and varieties. A descriptive perspective avoids using terms such as “wrong” or “incorrect”, “appropriate” or “inappropriate”, because these words spur hierarchical and prescriptive connotations. In this page, we describe some of the grammatical rules of Standard Academic English while recognizing the value and different uses of all Englishes.
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