Community Exchange

We believe that conversation and dialogue are the starting points for progress. Faculty often ask how they can help their students feel comfortable, confident and fluent writing in the U.S. academy. Non-native writers have either expressed a desire to be understood and/or a confusion about the expectations of writing in the U.S. academy. This is a space where writers can be heard and where others—instructors, peers—can listen and assist.

We envision a conversation among writers whose first language is not English, and those for whom English is a first language, including, in both categories, faculty, writing center administrators, and researchers.

We intend for the blog, the wiki and the Facebook page to serve several purposes:

1. They are places for writers to build community and share their stories about negotiating diverse and often divergent academic experiences.
2. They are tools and spaces for course-related writing:
   • the wiki can serve as a place for peer-review and collaborative writing.
   • The Facebook group can serve as a forum for community building, discussion boards, educational resources and networking.

This is a project of the George Mason University Writing Center and the Diversity Research Group. For more information, please contact xxxx.