Kai Hildebrandt

Retired faculty members keep hand in instruction as writing advisors

Although the students who use their services come from all different academic disciplines, varying countries and cultures, and range from first-year undergraduates to doctoral candidates, they generally share one challenge, say the volunteers of the Writing Advisor program: grammar.

“Sometimes the first draft of their papers won’t contain any articles at all,” says Kai Hildebrandt, one of the professors emeriti who have been helping students with their essays. “In fairness, some of their native languages don’t have articles like English does.”