Settled at a desk in the middle of a well-lit room in the Robertson Library, Damilola (Dami) Emmanuel reads over some notes in a notebook. The third-year business student has papers to write and he's here, at the UPEI Writing Centre, for help. Dami, an international student from Nigeria, started going to the centre during his first semester at UPEI, following a presentation from a tutor to his UPEI 101 class.  

“My writing wasn’t really good. I was pretty much terrified (of university writing),” he said. 

He started bringing work to the writing centre, and before long he was seeing improvements.

"I would see a lot of corrections," he said. "At first, when an instructor would ask me, ‘What is wrong with that sentence?' I wouldn't be able to answer, but as time went on I became a better editor of my own work."

Through dedication and hard work, Dami improved his writing and was named a recipient of the MacLauchlan Prizes for Effective Writing in 2016. He also had an article published in the UPEI Arts Review in 2017. 

The writing centre is here to help students with any part of the writing process, and any kind of writing. 

Thesis statements, outlines, formatting, creative writing: tutors help with all of it.  And, importantly, the centre is not just for those writers who need a bit of a boost to perform at an academic level. It’s for everyone who writes at the university level. 

For Collin Dares, the centre has helped him focus on what it means to write well. The first-year bachelor of paramedicine student said before he visited the Writing Centre, his view on writing was "more is better".

As a mature student and a practising paramedic, he had been out of school for almost 10 years before starting at UPEI. 

"Naturally, I felt like when I wrote it was a little bit exaggerated. I guess I thought more words meant more information and made me sound smarter," he said. "But really I think now that it's quite the opposite -- the more briefly you can sum up a topic, I think that's more a reflection of expertise."

Collin worked with several tutors at the centre and clicked with one in particular, whom he goes back to regularly to brush up his work. He has no hesitation in using the Writing Centre's support to improve his writing.

“They were very welcoming and it’s easy to sign up,” Collin said. 

Grace Gibson, a student teacher at the centre, has been helping fellow students with their papers and assignments for three years. She said students who take advantage of the service aren’t guaranteed an A or a high grade, but they usually see significant improvements. Students take the tips they receive and the tools they acquire through sitting with a tutor in the centre with them throughout their academic career.   

“Really it’s the most rewarding part of the job when a student comes back and says ‘I did really well on this test’ or ‘I’ve got an A’ or a 90 per cent,” she said.