Since our founding in 2009, our Writing Center has promoted the development of students' skills in academic and professional writing and reading. Through a diverse course offering and one-on-one instruction, we help students:

• navigate the writing process using effective methods;
• communicate according to the conventions and genres of academic writing;
• gain a critical understanding of discipline-specific knowledge by engaging with these ideas through writing..

We share these goals with the German Society for Writing Didactics and Writing Research (GEFSUS), as set out in the 2018 position paper “Schreibkompetenz im Studium" (Writing Competency in University Studies).

In more than 50 courses and workshops held in both English and German each year, as well as at events like The Long Night Against Procrastination, students of all subjects and experience levels can independently develop their writing skills. With our courses on the mechanics of academic English and German, we hope to promote academic success for students of all language backgrounds. Our Peer Tutors, students specially trained in Writing Center didactics, provide individual writing support to their peers. Each year, several hundred students from across the university visit the Writing Center to receive careful guidance in their writing process, and are given the space to develop their own questions, ideas, and arguments.

We believe that academic writing should also be taught in the disciplines themselves. To this end, we consult with faculty on how best to integrate Writing Center pedagogy and methods into their courses, and our Writing Fellow Program and Seminar-integrated Trainings bring our work directly to the disciplines.

In addition, as an academic institution we contribute to research on writing competency and writing didactics. Our courses and workshops are designed in accordance with the current state of research on writing didactics and are further developed through our own research. In this way we contribute to writing research and are networked nationally and internationally in the writing center and writing research community.