We know that individual conferences are often the most effective way to help students improve their writing.  We also know that with our busy schedules, it is often difficult to meet with all the students who might benefit from one-on-one conversations about their writing.

Also, we believe that a peer--who will not be grading a student's work--can sometimes offer a more comfortable source of help, since a Writing Advisor's job is to guide and to help clarify ideas rather than to evaluate.  The Writing Advisors are selected from a group of upperclassmen who have been nominated by the Upper School faculty for their writing ability and interpersonal skills.  Interested nominees interview with the Writing Center staff and submit a graded sample of their writing for review.  Nominees are selected to become Writing Advisors based on their performance in the interview and the quality of the writing sample they submit.

Further, all writers can benefit from objective feedback on their work.  Even highly successful, published writers regularly seek the opinion of trusted, experienced readers. 

"I worked in a Writing Center in college and found it one of the most rewarding experiences imaginable, both as a Writing Advisor and as a student who visited the Center for help with my own papers.  While most colleges now have Writing Centers, they are still fairly rare in high schools, and I am thrilled that we have been given the opportunity to open one at GA.  It offers students the chance to talk about their writing with peers who will listen and peers who are equipped to offer them thoughtful suggestions and feedback.  It is so useful for students to know that their peers (and by extension they) can become expert writers.  It is also wonderful for students who love to write to have their love of writing validated; the Writing Center is a formal recognition that we do have very committed writers at GA.  Now they have a place of their own."   

Becca Burnett
Upper School English
English III Coordinator
Assistant Director of the Writing Center

What We Are…

We provide carefully selected, fully trained student Writing Advisors to work on writing assignments in all subjects, in all grades in the Upper School.  Students can bring assignments at any stage of development: brainstorming, outlining, rough or polished drafts.  We'll help them wherever they are to make their writing clearer and more effective.

We are also the "home base" for creative writing here at GA.  We will sponsor several programs each year that bring professional, working writers to campus to meet and work with our students.  We hope to bring writers of all type and description: poets, fiction writers, journalists, editors, playwrights among others.

The Writing Center will also promote opportunities for students to participate in writing competitions and to send their work out for publication.  We plan to institute a program of coffeehouses, where students can share their work with each other and with the community.

Through connections with off-campus programs, such as the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania, we will seek out opportunities to connect with the larger writing community, and to expand and promote creative writing here at GA.  We also plan to support our on-campus publications, and to offer an ongoing writing workshop for students interested in sharing and critiquing their original creative writing. 

What We Are Not…

A fix-it shop.  Student Writing Advisors will offer an objective opinion to help clarify ideas and provide support in the revision process.  They will not rewrite papers for their student-clients.  Their job is to provide a second set of eyes to help spot flaws, and to provide a sounding board as a student clarifies her or his goals and ideas.  But the writing, and the work, is and must always be wholly the student's own.

A place exclusively for struggling writers.  Even the most confident, accomplished writers can benefit from expert feedback.  A trained Writing Advisor can offer valuable advice and perspective to anyone from a new ninth grader to a seasoned AP veteran.

Only for English papers.  We welcome students working on writing from any subject, from a lab report to a research paper to a journal entry.  We're interested in any kind of writing, in any discipline.  We can also help with college admission essays and even teacher recommendation letters.