The Academic Writing Center at the English Language Institute was given the initial go-ahead and approval by an official decision from the KAU President in December 2018. The Minister of Education, Dr. Hamad Al Alshaikh, officially launched the ELI Academic Writing Center during an inaugural ceremony held at KAU on Thursday May 23, 2019.

The Minister launched the ELI Writing Center following the conclusion of the 6th KAU Council Session for the academic year 2018/2019.

The ELI Writing Center was given the initial go-ahead and approval by an official decision from the KAU President, Prof. Abdulrahman Al-Youbi in December, 2018.

The center’s role is to offer a wide range of assistance, advice, and hands-on practical activities to sharpen and improve the essential academic writing skills of KAU undergraduate and graduate students.

The Center offers a variety of academic writing courses and workshops to enhance the writing quality of student reports, assignments, and research papers.

Students are also provided one-to-one tutoring and consultation services to handle writing issues and concerns for better written products.

---

Academic Writing Center Goals & Objectives

The English Language Institute’s Academic Writing Center aims to:

• Develop King Abdulaziz University students’ academic writing skills to enable them to write in an academic style with clarity and precision by understanding rhetorical and linguistic strategies and stylistics in academic settings.
• Hold innovative workshops, training sessions, and provide a range of services and extracurricular activities to support both the processes of autonomous self-learning in academic writing and the structural linguistic modelling for academic research and reports.
• Foster and reinforce the culture and ethics of ’excellence and distinction’ in academic writing.
• Offer opportunities to raise the standards of students’ individual and group work in academic writing skills.
• Build professional collaboration and affiliations with national/regional and international writing centers which will aid our staffs’ professional development and promote high academic standards through certified programs to become internationally certified and participate in scholarly conferences and meetings.

---

Academic Writing Center Principles

The AWC educational process is based on several academic principles, including:

• Utilizing academic ethics in academic writing.
• Putting forward arguments using scientific evidence.
• Organizing cohesive and coherent writing texts.
• Enhancing academic research skills.
• Applying accepted terminology and adhering to internationally recognized academic writing norms.
• Establishing familiarity with internationally accepted academic writing style, citing, and quoting in accordance with research formatting and style guides, such as the MLA and APA.

---

Academic Writing Center Responsibilities

The main responsibilities undertaken by the AWC to achieve its vision and mission include:

• Enhancing the university’s role in developing students’ academic writing skills in English at all levels of university education.
• Conducting studies on the complexity and challenges of academic writing, providing solutions, and developing initiatives resulting from the studies’ recommendations.
• Working and cooperating directly with KAU faculties benefiting from the Center’s services.
• Holding academic writing-themed seminars and scholarly meetings.
• Participating in national and international scholarly conferences and meetings to enhance the university’s role in this field.
• Forming national and global partnerships to support the quality of academic writing for KAU students and external stakeholders.
• Drawing up an AWC Strategic Plan in line with the University’s aspirations to enhance its students’ academic writing skills and to fulfill the University faculties’ requirements.
• Establishing an AWC Website to introduce the center’s services and activities and to disseminate the culture of excellence in academic writing.

---

Academic Writing Center Organizational Structure

Structure:

The Dean of the English Language Institute supervises the center, which is administratively and academically affiliated to the Deanship of the English Language Institute. The director of the center and his two deputies in both parts work and cooperate directly with officials in the colleges benefiting from the services of the center and provide the necessary support to their students, faculty members, and university employees.

Advisory Board

The Advisory Council is chaired by the Dean of the English Language Institute and the members of the Council consist of the Director of the Center for Academic Writing (Secretary of the Council), the Vice-Dean of the Institute, the Vice-Dean of the Institute in the female section, the Vice-Dean for Educational Affairs, the Vice-Dean for Development, the Deputy Director of the Center in the male section, the Deputy Director of the Center in the female section, and representatives For the concerned colleges, and two international advisors. The advisory board aims to supervise the center's strategic plan, provide the necessary support to achieve plans, programs and initiatives, and cooperate with other entities inside and outside the university.