Teaching Professional Writing in an Academic Health Sciences Center: The Writing Center Model at the Medical University of South Carolina

Abstract

Background: Writing is taught as professional competency in higher education generally, but the health science education literature emphasizes writing as a pedagogical means rather than a professional end. The Medical University of South Carolina established a Writing Center in 1994 to teach professional writing. Summary: This report describes the rationale for profession-specific, graduate-level writing instruction; summarizes the Writing Center model; and reports usage data. Students have reported improvement in particular texts and said they would be better able to complete writing tasks in the future. Conclusions: Interventions modeled after the Writing Center and staffed with professionally trained writing teachers may provide a means to pool resources to teach writing as professional competency. The Writing Center has provided the expertise to teach professional writing without demanding curricular revision.