The University of Limerick (UL), Mary Immaculate College (MIC),
Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) and the Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT), have joined forces under the Shannon Consortium to provide support in academic and professional writing to their students and staff with the establishment of Ireland's first Regional Writing Centre. Fintan O'Toole, one of Ireland's leading political and cultural commentators, officially launched the Centre at UL on March 13th, 2008. The Centre works with individuals and groups of students to help them develop their writing skills, while also providing programmes for faculty, assisting them in designing and incorporating effective writing activities into their programmes of study. The Regional Writing Centre project recognises the central position of writing, to teaching and learning at higher education, and its vital role in professional employment. The Centre serves the need for a coordinated, systematic approach to developing writing for academic and professional purposes. While Writing Centres flourish in American universities, the concept is new to Ireland. However, the new centre draws on the expertise which already exists in the four institutions, including an academic writing support programme at MIC and a previouslyestablished Writing Centre and Writing Research Forum at UL.
According to Prof. Don Barry, UL President, all the skills necessary to a knowledge economy can be developed through writing. "Attention to structural and stylistic features of a text promotes basic literacy skills and with so much writing done on either a word processor or online, writing promotes IT literacy. Collaborative writing induces cooperation and allows for the development of negotiation and communication skills.
Writing that synthesises information from two or more academic disciplines, such as, science and the arts, develops an awareness of multiple viewpoints on what constitutes knowledge, fostering adaptability, tolerance for ambiguity and overall intellectual maturity."
The project is inherently interdisciplinary and inter-collegial, drawing finance from over €18.6 million in Strategic Innovation Funding granted to the Shannon Consortium over the past two years. It involves collaboration between language specialists and subject specialists in a centre which will provide support to undergraduate and postgraduate students, tailored to their specialised needs in terms of discipline, genre (thesis, Final Year Project, essay, report etc.), and language.
