STUDENT GUIDE - Earl Warren College - UC San Diego

Warren College Writing Center
The Warren College Writing Center offers academic support for Warren Students working on writing assignments for any
course. One-on-one assistance is provided free of charge by peer writing mentors on a pre-arranged or drop-in basis.
The center director also offers group workshops addressing a range of writing tasks.
We believe that good writing is essential for academic success. Although students may receive explicit writing instruction
in their classes, there is sometimes a gap between what goes on in the classroom and student understanding; we seek to
bridge this gap. We provide a supplemental support service that may be particularly important at a large university like
UC San Diego.
We see writing as a process that takes practice. No one is a perfect writer; there is always room for improvement at
any stage of the process. Every writer is different, and we attempt to work with each writer as best we can. We aim
to be responsive to unique capabilities and needs. We take into account individual students’ priorities - what they say
they want to achieve in their mentoring sessions - while simultaneously communicating our own concerns about writing
problems.
Our approach is interactive, not directive. We are here not to give answers, but to ask questions that may provoke
thinking. We try to tease out what students want to say, but are having a hard time expressing. We are here to help
them present their ideas clearly and thoroughly, not to promote our own ideas. When we work with students whose
writing is a response to other written texts, we encourage them to analyze these texts in depth and detail, and we try to
help them see themselves as having a conversation with other writers.
We recognize that students coming to see us may be anxious about their writing and their academic capacities. We
strive to be approachable, to create a comfortable and nonjudgmental environment, and to help build student
confidence. But we also strive to provide honest and constructive criticism, to deal with students professionally, and to
give them the feedback they need. We ultimately want them to be able to feel good about what they have written.
Academic Internship Program
The Academic Internship Program (AIP) offers students an opportunity to apply their academic knowledge and
analytical skills in diverse professional settings while earning academic credit. Students gain practical experience, career
clarification, professional contacts, transcript notation, upper-division elective units, and a chance to apply classroom
theory.
Students are eligible to apply for AIP if at the time of application, they have 90 units completed (including transfer units)
and a minimum 2.5 UC GPA. Some specific internships and programs require a higher GPA.
Requirements: Credit for internships is awarded based on a minimum number of hours worked each week, and
completion of a paper/project supervised by a faculty advisor from the student’s field of study. Students are required to
intern for the full ten weeks of the quarter. Eight and twelve unit internships require special approval.
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4 units = 10 hours/week + 10 pg. paper/project
8 units = 20 hours/week + 20 pg. paper/project
12 units = 30 hours/week + 30 pg. paper/project
Once eligible, students should visit the AIP office to get started. Students need to apply the quarter prior to their
internship. Visit the AIP website at http://aip.ucsd.edu for deadline details and information on special programs.
Students may also apply to earn credit for a internship they find on their own if it meets AIP’s guidelines. Contact the AIP
office or visit http://aip.ucsd.edu/ for more information on this option.
http://warren.ucsd.edu