About the Writing Center

Why is writing so difficult?  There are probably as many reasons as there are authors, but one of the biggest is that it is impossible to write clearly about an idea until you have had it clearly, and that itself can be extraordinarily difficult.  Our best and deepest thoughts arrive from a thousand directions and often in surprising moments, and they don’t work very hard to keep themselves in line.  Some may even arrive as wordless feelings or intuitions that language seems sorely inadequate to capture.  Once we start herding these mental experiences into a reasonable order on the page, new thoughts come along out of nowhere and disrupt the whole business again.  In short, even for its best practitioners, writing is usually a messy process; for the rest of us, it can seem absolutely hopeless.

How We Can Help

The Writing Center understands these frustrations and is prepared to help you through them while also thinking more about where they originate.  We offer guidance on everything from the most basic components of style and grammar to your highest aspirations to clarity, elegance, and originality.  While we don’t offer direct editing or proofreading on papers about to be submitted – in the end, the work must be yours, not ours – we are happy to read anything you have written, assess strengths and weaknesses, and identify ways you can improve, both short-term and long-term.  This is not just for remedial help.  Everyone can benefit from thinking more about their writing, and the best writers sometimes get the least feedback. Whatever your current talents as a writer, we are here to help you improve.

We are prepared to work with you on many aspects of writing, including:

• conceiving ideas for a paper (please feel free to meet with us even before you have a draft)
• writing a strong thesis statement
• developing a clear and logical structure
• finding support for an argument
• developing creativity and finding your “voice” as an author
• honing your writing process to make it more productive
• proofreading skills and basic mechanics
• proper citation

As we work on these kinds of practical skills and methods, we are also here to encourage more abstract reflection on different kinds of writing and the social and historical conditions that influence how we evaluate them. Whether we look at academic journals, literary fiction, technical writing, screenplays, or advertising slogans, almost nothing we read looks the way it did a few decades ago.  The Writing Center encourages reflection about these changes and the forces that drive them, not only to help us notice, but also to help us think more carefully about what we value in the written word and why.  In the end, we want to help you develop the skills to succeed as a writer by contemporary standards, but also the critical faculties to question whether those standards are the ones you wish to associate with success.  

Where to Find Us

The Center is located on the main floor of Watzek Library, to the right of the reference desk and behind the reference book stacks.  Our offices are against the west wall.  Here’s a map. 

Hours

The Center’s peer tutors are available regularly to meet to discuss anything connected with your writing.  No appointment is needed — just visit the Center during the following hours:  

• Tuesday through Thursday:   3:30-5:30 pm
• Sunday through Thursday:     7-10 pm

Please note:  Thursday, May 2 will be the last day of peer tutoring for the 2012-13 academic year.  We’ll start up again at the beginning of the fall semester, so please come see us then!

 

If we are occupied with other students, just sign in and we’ll be with you as soon as we can.  Please plan to arrive well before drop-in hours end so we can be sure we have enough time to work with you.  

You are also welcome to schedule an appointment with the Center’s director, John Holzwarth, who is available for one-on-one consultations most weekdays between 10 and 4.  Please click on “Writing Consultations” on the right side of this page for information about these meetings or to schedule an appointment on our calendar.