Standard Written English (SWE) is an established standard of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and structure for English writing. English writing typically conforms to the expectations of SWE and often does not thoroughly consider the writing process for non-native English speakers.
St. Olaf’s Writing Desk, led by Associate Director of Writing, Speaking, and Academic Support Bridget Draxler and trained peer tutors, is adopting strategies to help non-native English speakers navigate SWE, with a particular focus on maintaining authentic voice while still effectively conveying ideas. The Writing Desk allows students to work with trained, peer tutors throughout the writing process for assignments across disciplines.
At the Writing Desk, students are not subjected to the “red pen treatment,” as Draxler said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger, which focuses on correcting conventions and wording. Rather, Writing Desk tutors approach each session as a celebration of a student’s work. The tutors focus on highlighting the individual’s voice as well.
“When someone comes to the writing desk, I’m not treating them as, ‘I am the tutor, and you’re the student.’ We’re both writers,” Roaya Ghuneim ’26, a lead writing tutor, said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger.
With those goals in mind, the Writing Desk supports several different teams of tutors dedicated to particular areas of interest such as AI, mentoring, outreach, and anti-racist tutoring.
Tashani Williams ’26, the lead tutor for anti-racist tutoring at the Writing Desk, said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger, “We’ve had lots of discussions within our project teams about how students — especially students who don’t speak English as their first language or first-generation students — how they feel like they have to write in a specific way for their work to be accepted by professors, or accepted in general.
Writing Desk tutors are taught to give writers tools to defend their rhetorical choices as some may choose to make intentional choices that deviate from SWE. Draxler and Ghuneim both focus on promoting agency in writing. Standard English has styles and structures that deviate from other languages, ranging from capitalizing improper nouns to longer, more complicated sentences. SWE typically has a shorter, more direct sentence structure. Non-native English speakers often compromise between maintaining their authentic voice and fitting their writing within SWE. Writing Desk tutors strive not to make writers compromise, but instead find ways to convey their intention and stylistic choices to professors.
“Just because it’s non-standard, doesn’t mean it’s an error,” Draxler explained. “For instance, if you were to have an Indigenous writer capitalizing words for parts of nature, which are not proper nouns in standard English, the tutor might encourage them to put a footnote explaining why they’re capitalizing those words.”
The Writing Desk tutors may also help students draft emails to professors explaining any intentional deviation from SWE. Beyond that initial communication, the Writing Desk does not facilitate conversations between students and professors. Responsibility is placed on the student to advocate for themselves and their stylistic choices or to choose to adapt to SWE.
“Based on my experiences as a student, I think professors have always been very compassionate and understanding,” Ghuneim said.
With AI reshaping how professors approach academic writing, SWE continues to be prioritized. AI offers a new challenge to linguistic diversity and standardization. Critical language awareness, which promotes linguistic diversity and deconstructing the model of standardized English, has gained momentum in the past decade of higher education. AI threatens its progress.
However, according to Draxler, students writing in SWE that deviates from their natural voice are more likely to be accused of using AI. This has produced an unexpected, but positive, consequence.
According to Draxler, while writing centers nationwide have seen major declines in attendance due to AI, the Writing Desk has seen an increase as students look to work with other students on how to write in their own voice.
Draxler and the Writing Desk stress that there is no single way to write, and that good writing is not standardized. What’s most important is that students feel empowered to communicate their ideas without being torn down by abstract ideas of what “good writing” looks like. “Every writer has ideas that they want to communicate. Every writer has a voice and a style that’s unique to them, and we want to be a place that affirms all of those voices,” Draxler said.
