清華大學寫作中心

NTHU Writing Center Registration Policies
[ About course/Writing proficiency test application ]

1. Eligibility: You must be currently registered at NTHU.

2. To be enrolled at the courses, you must follow two steps: 1) online application and 2) registration. Only those applicants who are chosen via a computer-generated random lottery drawing need to complete the registration process. See [Registration] for more information.

3. Applications need to fill out personal and contact information online. Please type in your name and student ID correctly because wrong personal information will lead to registration failure.

4. Attention!- You are NOT allowed to use other’s identification or let others to use yours to enroll in courses or to apply for writing consultations. Violators of the policy described above will be suspended of the rights to use the Writing Center services up to six months. In addition, invalid student IDs will not be qualified for course registration either.

5. Please make sure to fill out valid contact information (i.e. phone number and e-mail address). The Writing Center is not responsible for undeliverable emails or emails never received by a student for any reason.

6. Students applying for the Writing Proficiency Test held by NTHU Writing Center will receive e-mail notification about the test date and time. Thus, if you do not receive any reply from the Writing Center one business day after your application for the writing test, please contact us for confirmation.

Note 1. Except for Regular Courses, students are not suggested to repeat a course more than once, partly because the course capacity is limited, partly because the Center aims to maximize the number of students who can benefit from the courses.
Note 2. To maintain quality of learning and teaching, the Writing Center courses are not open to audit registration. Students who insist to sit in on courses will be asked to leave the classroom immediately.

[ About registration ]

1. We recommend that you closely monitor the draw results posted on NTHU Writing Center website. The course application results will be frequently updated in the official website until the capacity is filled.

2. The Writing Center will send out e-mail notification to students about course enrollment. To complete the registration process, students need to confirm the willingness to take the class by replying the e-mail within requested time (usually in two business days). If a seat becomes available, wait listed students will be notified via email.

3. Students who do not complete the registration process within requested time will be regarded as abstaining from taking the class.

4. The first two students on a waiting list can sit in on the first class. In case any registered student is absent from the first class or drops out of the class, the capacity will be filled by these two students on the waiting list.
Note. Should you have to withdraw courses for personal reasons (e.g. the course does not meet your needs), you cannot switch to another course. Instead, you still have to go through the two- step application process.

[ About dropout/withdrawa l]

1. Students withdrawing courses without justifiable reasons will be suspended from applying for any Writing Center services for two months.

2. If you want to drop out of a course, please contact the Writing Center three business days before the course starts and specify your reasons. By so doing, the course capacity will be open to wait listed students. Attention!-If you drop out of a course without notification or not within the three days grace period, you will be suspended of the rights to apply for the Writing Center services for 6 months.

3. If you find out the course does not meet your needs in your first class meeting of a course, please contact the Writing Center right after the class to complete the withdrawal process.

4. Please make sure that you are willing to and will be able to attend the course before you apply and register for the course. It is the Writing Center’s policy that each student can at most withdraw from two courses per semester. Violators will be suspended from applying for any Writing Center services for two months.

5. For Writing Proficiency test takers, if you have to postpone or cancel the test, please notify the Writing Center at least one business day before the scheduled test date. Students who do not show or cancel the test not within the requested time will be suspended for two months.

[ About attendance policy ]

All courses offered by Writing Center are free to students at NTHU. To maintain quality of learning as well as to ensure learning sources being cherished, the Writing Center adheres to a strict attendance policy. Students are expected to attend all scheduled sessions. If an absence is unavoidable, please contact the Writing Center or instructors in advance and specify your reasons.

Consequences for violating attendance policy will be determined individually, shown as follows:

1. Students not achieving attendance rates of 70% will be suspended from applying for any Writing Center services for 2 months.
2. Students not achieving attendance rates of 50% will be suspended from applying for any Writing Center services for 3 months.
3. Students who have never attended or attended a course only once will be suspended from applying for any Writing Center services for up to 6 months.
Note. Attendance rates is calculated as a percentage of the number of classes attended divided by the total number of classes.

[ Special Notes ]

1. The NTHU Writing Center offers workshops or short-term courses, which emphasize on the development of writing concepts and learning strategies. Due to time limits, there will not be plenty of writing practices and teacher feedback in these workshops. For those who attempt to address one’s own writing issues, please apply for the individual writing consultation. If you want to have more writing practice, we suggest you to take semester courses offered by Language Center.

2. The NTHU Writing Center launches “English Learning Passport”, a rewarding project designed to booster students’ learning motivation. Specifically, if students achieve the attendance rates of 80%, each student will receive 1 point per class. A perfect attendance can get the student one more point. For more information, see English Learning Passport.

[ Proof of English Writing Proficiency ]

The NTHU Writing Center aims to provide courses that take into account students’ proficiency levels and learning needs, “Regular Writing Courses” are designed for four grade levels: beginner, intermediate, upper-intermediate, and advanced levels.

For students who want to register for any of the Regular Writing Courses, the proof of English Writing Proficiency is mandatory and will be requested when enrolling in courses. To obtain the proof of English Writing Proficiency, you can either 1) participate in the Writing Test held by NTHU Writing Center or 2) provide official transcripts of English examinations, including GEPT, TOEFL, and IELTS. Please come to the Writing Center with the official transcripts and your student ID.

To establish a criterion for course grading levels, a score comparison table is provided as follows.

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Note 1. This table is only established for course grading purpose by the NTHU Writing Center.
Note 2. The result of NTHU writing test is merely used for course placement purpose, and thus will not be released to anyone. If you have further questions on your own writing, you can compose an essay and apply for the Writing Consultation.