The Writing Center is a unique feature of the American liberal arts education curriculum. At a seminar organized by AUN’s Writing Center on January 31, the Coordinator of the Center, Nicholas Achoda, told the student attendees why they need to patronize it.
Mr. Achoda told the new students that throughout their stay in the university, they will be involved in writing, whether a report or research paper.
“Do you know that conventional universities in Nigeria do not have a Writing Center? It is an establishment for every American university.”
The seminar was on plagiarism and citation. He told the students that AUN has zero tolerance for academic dishonesty and the Center teaches students ways in which they can avoid cheating.
“There is an etiquette that is concerned with writing that you are expected to follow.”
He further taught them how their patronage of the Center can help them avoid falling prey to plagiarism.
On what they can gain from the Center, he said it will teach them how to write, how to use sources, how to develop sources, how to develop academic integrity and acknowledge sources when they use them.
He explained academic integrity as being honest with one’s scholarship as opposed to cheating.
“We are talking about you being honest and responsible through your scholarship, creating original academic work.”
He said the core value of academic integrity includes honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. Other forms of academic integrity are class attendance and punctuality, as well as paying attention in class and taking notes during classes.
During the sensitization, he gave the consequences of plagiarism and other forms of cheating to include being summoned to a judicial affairs panel and ultimately being suspended, explaining that it can affect students psychologically when they eventually do not graduate with their peers.
Reported by Omorogbe Omorogiuwa