Japanese Writing Center

The Japanese Writing Center (JWC) helps students develop strong Japanese writing skills.

JAPN 301 (Intermediate Japanese) requires the students to write a 7-minute speech.  There is an annual Japanese Speech Contest run by the Japanese American Association of Northern California and the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco.  The students in JAPN 301 receive extra credit for participation in the contest.  JAPN 302 (Advanced Japanese) requires the students to write a 4-page research paper about Japanese culture.  Both writing projects are facilitated by the Japanese Writing Center, in which each student meets with a writing tutor once a week for 30 minutes throughout the semester.  The writing tutor is usually a Japanese native-speaking graduate student.  The students are assigned to write one paragraph each week and present it to the tutor for corrections.  

The tutor will assist you with:

1. brainstorming for topic ideas
2. organizing essays
3. choosing appropriate writing styles
4. identifying grammatical and usage errors
5. choosing appropriate kanji characters

The tutor writes a weekly report to the instructor on student progress.  The students also send the instructor their drafts at the beginning, mid-way, and final stage of the project for comments and revisions.

(c) Noriko Nagata -- Picture 1: 2009 Annual Japanese Speech Contest at the Consulate General of Japan, SF