The Writing Center, founded in 1976 by Bonnie Zelenak as the Writing Lab, has supported students at the University of Missouri for over 45 years. In 1994, it was the second writing center in the country to establish an online presence for asynchronous feedback on student writing: the Online Writery.
Now, the Writing Center supports anyone with a pawprint (including faculty, postdocs, and distanced-students) completely free of charge throughout their time at Mizzou via in-person appointments at the Columbia campus, Zoom appointments, and asynchronous responses through the Online Writery. Writers of all levels can expect detailed feedback and revision options focused on “Higher Order Concerns” and “later order concerns” for any stage of the writing process, regardless of the modality in which they utilize Writing Center services.
The Writing Center employs a wonderful staff of between 50 and 100 tutors during any given semester. That staff is made up of a combination of undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate writers; all tutors both receive formal training before they begin tutoring and are required to attend regular training workshops throughout their employment as tutors.
Undergraduate tutors have taken General Honors/English 2015HW: Theory and Practice of Writing Tutoring, a 15-week honors- and writing intensive-course that prepares them for writing center work through the study of writing center scholarship, observations of current tutors, and tutoring session “takeovers.” If you’re interested in taking the course, please contact the directors for more information about enrollment and wait lists.
Writing Fellows are graduate students from across Mizzou’s campus who work primarily with students enrolled in Writing Intensive courses.
Graduate Writing Support tutors work as part of our Graduate Writing Support program, made possible in part by generous funding from the Graduate School, the College of Education and Human Development, and the Master of Public Health program. These tutors are current or post-graduate students that work primarily with graduate students who utilize the Writing Center.
Our 2022-2026 Advisory Board consist of a group of phenomenal faculty and staff from across campus:
Ritcha Mehra-Chaudhary—Biochemistry
Rachel Harper—Honors College
Jennifer Fellabaum-Toston—Education & Human Development & Family Sciences
Ashlie Lester—Education & Human Development & Family Sciences
Christie McCullough—Management
Jeannette Porter—Journalism
Tim Safranski—Animal Sciences
Morgan Shahan—Nursing
Jenna Wintemberg—Health Sciences/Public Health
On the right side of this page, you’ll find even more information about our current staff as well as our past few annual reports. Please feel free to click around or come see us at one of our sites on campus!