This article is from page 19 of the 2008-03-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 19 JPG
IRELAND’S first regional writing centre has opened in Limerick under the auspices of the newly established Shannon Consortium.
The University of Limerick (UL), Mary Immaculate College (MIC), Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) and the Institute of Technol- ogy Tralee (ITT) have joined forces under the Shannon Consortium with the establishment of the centre at University of Limerick.
The centre will work with individ- uals and groups of students to help them develop their writing skills.
The centre was set up to meet the need for a coordinated, systematic approach to the development of writ- ing for both academic and profes- sional purposes.
While writing centres flourish in American universities, the concept is a new one in Ireland. The centre can draw on an established academic writing support programme at MIC and the writing centre and writing research forum at UL.
Fintan O’Toole, who officially launched the centre, said, ““We live at a time when the misuse of language is more deliberate, more organised and more professional than it has ever been.
“Whether it is obfuscation at the tribunals, the spinning of the Iraq war, the marketing of so-called “low fat” foods, or the subtler kind of re-branding that led, for example, to ‘global warming’ becoming the much more benign ‘climate change’, the use of words to obscure realities has become a key tool of power.”
‘Attention to structural and stylis- tic features of a text promotes basic literacy skills and with so much writ- ing done on either a word processor or online, writing promotes IT lit- eracy, according to Professor Don Barry, UL President.
The project was financed from over €18.6 million in Strategic Innova- tion Funding granted to the Shannon Consortium over the past two years. It involves collaboration between language specialists and subject spe- EVA