Academic writing centres play an important role at universities worldwide to explore and develop writers. The BRAC University Writing Centre, the first of its kind in Bangladesh was established with the same purpose; to help students grow as mature academic writers.
The BRAC University Writing Centre serves students of all departments. Any undergraduate or graduate, at any time of the semester, from any department may come for assistance at any stage of a written assignment. It is a place where one on one teaching and learning occurs, as in a single session mentors deal with individual students to give more attention on exploring and developing their ideas.
The sole aim of the Writing Centre is to help students become better writers by providing students with whatever support they need in terms of writing. The centre’s purpose is to assist in the development of the writer, not the assignment. With that in mind, our tutors focus on collaboration, discussion and negotiation but never introduce their own opinions or decisions.
In assisting the students, sessions are either pre-scheduled or arranged on a walk-in basis. A student who drops-in without an appointment is welcome, especially since the concept of the writing centre is still new to the students of Bangladesh. Usually sessions are 60 minutes long, with 50 minutes given to the sessions, and 10 minutes for wrap-up.
Furthermore, the Writing Centre conducts numerous activities for the purpose of encouraging the writers to write more and improve their creative writing skills. The most recent activities involved a “Fun Magazine” and a “Valentine’s Day Wall Magazine”. Seeing the great response from student writers and readers, the Writing Centre plans on holding a seminar on the event of Bangladesh’s Independence Day in the month of March.
The Writing Centre is open on every working day; it is open to visit from Sunday to Thursday, 11:30am to 3:30pm, in the Mohakhali campus and Sunday to Wednesday, 2:30pm to 5:00pm in the Savar campus.
The Writing Centre functions through the combined efforts of the CfL faculty member, Liza Reshmin and Razia Sultana, and student Mentors Sarder Tawhid Imam and Mahboob Sadiqeen Khan; and in the Savar campus Rejaul Karim and student Mentors Tamjid Ahmed and Shirleen Manzur.