Peer Mentoring at the Writing Café@PolyU

The Writing Café@PolyU, initiated by a Faculty Reserve project, “Piloting a model for the development of a writing centre to support discipline-specific academic and professional writing”, has been further developed by another Faculty Reserve project to nurture a community of learners.

Through personalised guidance from experienced peer mentors, the Writing Café@PolyU aims to assist students either face-to-face or online with discipline-specific content, genre, language, and general process writing skills.

Peer mentors engage students in meaningful discussions, providing academic references, explaining complex concepts, and answering questions. By joining the Writing Café@PolyU, students can improve their writing and communication skills.

To become a mentee, students must register first. Then, they are assigned an experienced peer mentor to help them identify needs, plan for assignments, and provide feedback on their draft submitted before the meeting.

Students with excellent spoken and written skills and a passion for helping others are welcome to become peer mentors.

A website of the Writing Café@PolyU will be launched in January 2024. Colleagues interested in recommending students become peer mentors or mentees can email elc.writingcafe@polyu.edu.hk .

This article is authored by Issa Ying, Adam Barker, and Ryan Hunter of the English Language Centre.