Better writers for better writings. Interview with Violeta Molina

Abstract

Five years ago, Colombian profesor Violeta Molina undertook a challenging task at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Cali: to create a Writing Center to support students in their academic writing processes. To accomplish her goal, she faced many obstacles, mainly the loneliness associated with the task. As opposed to American universities, writing centers are quite new in Latin America and their founders had to use their wits to organize them, without too many regional references. With approximately 7000 undergraduate and graduate students, the Javeriana University was a pioneer in the creation of these centres. Under the motto “We make better writers, not better papers”, it receives 500 inquiries per semester, both from students and professors. Every year, the center trains tutors, who are the driving force of this proposal. In 2013, the Center celebrated its five years with the first Latin American Conference of Writing Centers. This gathering was attended by scholars, researchers and directors of writing centers and writing programs from Chile, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and Uruguay. At the Javeriana's beautiful campus, Molina talked with dixit about her work at the Writing Center and the task of building and communicating knowledge.