Making the Grade: The Big Picture

Has the pre-finals chaos set in yet? If you haven't witnessed some variation of the end of the semester panic attack, I can assure you that it's quickly approaching.

You see, students often feel that they know where they stand grade-wise in their classes. They assume that quiz, test, essay, and project averages put them at a ___ (fill in the predicted grade).

However, your prediction isn't necessarily accurate. Finals can play a critical role in determining your grade, but so can participation, revisions, and effort. Many grades are determined holistically, taking into consideration a variety of factors. Maybe you struggle with your writing, but you've had sessions at the Writing Center for every essay. That shows that you care. You made time outside of the classroom to actively work on your writing.

In my freshman year, I took a Calculus course. Let me just say that math, to me, is like a foreign language (and one that I'm not fluent in!). However, I made sure to see my professor during office hours, sign up for sessions at the Q Center, and participate in class even if that only included asking questions. Grade-wise, I was not optimistic. But I wasn't looking at the big picture. My professor saw the effort I put into the course and it paid off.

When you start making your end of the semester predictions just remember that it's not over until it's over. Put your best foot forward and relax already! You might be pleasantly surprised.

~Mary

P.S. The Writing Center will have Bonus Fall Exam Hours! We are open on Friday, December 11th from 10-1, Monday the 14th from 10-4, and Tuesday the 15th from 10-4. Hope to see you there.

The Beginning of the End

As the semester approaches its end, I think now would be a fitting time to discuss conclusions. Sometimes we don't know how a semester will wrap up. Will we ace our essays, quizzes, and projects only to struggle through finals? Will there be paper overloads? Will our Vera Bradley tote bags and Northface backpacks be stuffed to capacity? Or, will we float through finals week with the confidence that our hard work has paid off? Only time will tell.

Writing your paper's conclusion, whether in a research paper, literary analysis, or persuasive essay, may seem just as confusing and unpredictable as the end of a semester! And the thing is...that's okay. There is no secret recipe for creating a perfect conclusion. Yes, you'll likely want to address your paper's main points or argument, but it doesn't have to stop there. Maybe there's a current news story that relates to your topic, or a song lyric, or a quote. Maybe writing your paper made you think about something you didn't get a chance to explore.

In my spring American Lit. class I examined how Daisy and Gatsby in The Great Gatsby paralleled Adam and Eve. I clearly remember being stuck on my conclusion. Instead of resorting to summary, I ended my paper with the last sentence of the novel: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." My intent was to show that society continuously repeats the original story of sin and betrayal. I wanted to conclude that holding onto paradise is an impossible task, one that withstands time. But I wanted to show, not tell, and I think that incorporating (and citing!) Fitzgerald's writing with my own achieved that effect.

In conclusion ;) ... as you wrap up your own papers, remember to explore your own creativity rather than haphazardly crossing the essay finish line.

~Mary

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I have preparations to make, ingredients to buy, recipes to master (and delegate), table settings to arrange...This holiday time of year can really sneak up on you!

Like the holidays, don't let your essay preparation wait until the last minute. Set a timeline for yourself. There are only two weeks of classes left after the break before finals roll around. That's not a lot of time, but it is better than, say, two days. So, here's what I'd like you to do. Take small steps and try not to procrastinate. You wouldn't want to burn the turkey or break a plate of fine china just as you wouldn't want to present some half-baked literary analysis. Stuffing in filler quotes will also likely lead to an unfulfilling read.

Plan ahead, manage your time, and if you're looking for some help with your writing, make sure you sign up in advance for a session at the Center. We will be open during the beginning of finals week (definite hours tba). One final note, if you would like to reserve your seat at the Writing Center table, sign up outside of room 303 soon. Hope to see you on the guest list!

In the meantime, enjoy your Thanksgiving break.

~Mary
(Image courtesy of Clipart)

Just for Fun

I admit that I hear myself spout nonsense from time to time, though always with the best of intentions. Here's a way to have fun with a bit of that academic jargon you sometimes hear from your professors. Check out this academic sentence generator!

The Power of Metaphor

Which metaphors do you use when you think about writing? Which do your professors use? What are the possibilities of trying out some new metaphors in thinking about your writing?

Metaphors shape the choices we make as we approach writing. For example, if you’re writing an “argument” paper, you might find that you represent positions other than your own with hostility, that you write defensively and perhaps even overstate your true position as a way of overwhelming your reader and/or any potential opposition. You might think of the act of writing as an act of creation or a task or a process or a conversation or an exploration or an act of building. Each of these different ways of imagining writing will inflect your reasoning and your understanding of audience.

I’m always trying on new metaphors – both as I come to terms with my own challenges as a writer and as I work with students new to the university. I feel like this helps me notice my practices and assumptions with a fresh eye and sometimes gives me insight into possibilities I had previously overlooked. What about writing as weaving? Writing as sculpture or architecture or cultivation or cartography? What if we imagine essays and papers as trees…or video games…or forms of transportation?

What are your preferred metaphors and how do they help you better understand the act of writing? I’m always looking for more ideas!
~Wendy

Hanging Out with Quotations

A common tendency for students is to introduce or conclude a paragraph with a quotation. This can be tricky. You cannot trust that your reader (including your professor) will understand the quotation's purpose in your essay, so, you should fully explain your reasoning behind a particular quotation. It really is a judgment call.

Opening a paragraph with a quote does leave you room to explore its significance, while concluding with a quote usually stops analysis in its tracks. A token of advice?

When it comes to quotations...don't leave them hanging!

-James, Mary

(Image courtesy of Clipart)

To Quote or Not to Quote

To quote or not to quote...that is the question. First, a distinction ought to be made between the need for quotations as opposed to the need for citations in an essay. Citations are simply crediting the work parenthetically after an idea is borrowed, without quoting. Quotations should be used more discriminatingly; as scholarly as these excerpts make your writing look, many of the author's ideas can be summed up in your own words and cited.

So, when is it appropriate to quote? One occasion is when the language of the text itself is a factor in your argument. For instance, if you were writing about Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn to showcase the racial barriers between characters, a summary of a line would simply not create the same effect as say quoting "'NOW, old Jim, you're a free man again, and I bet you won't ever be a slave no more.' 'En a mighty good job it wuz, too, Huck. It 'uz planned beautiful, en it 'uz done beautiful; en dey ain't NOBODY kin git up a plan dat's mo' mixed-up en splendid den what dat one was'" (38-39). Here, Jim, the runaway slave, is juxtaposed with the title character. Specifically, Twain's use of phonetic vernacular exemplifies the racial and cultural barriers between the two characters. In this case, you see, a summary of the line would simply not create the same effect.

Other times "to quote:"

• If the text holds historical value
  
• If a particular line or section jumps out at you
• If the line(s) is essential to the storyline, argument, character development, or context as explored in your essay

-James Morganti

Citing & Writing

Okay, so you've finished your three hundred page book and your professor recently assigned a lengthy argument-driven essay. Such is life as a college student, right? At this point, your stress level can either remain constant or rocket sky-high, depending on the steps you take. In an effort to keep your stress level at a minimum, these series of posts will explore the ins-and-outs of drawing from text in a persuasive essay.

Upon receiving an essay prompt, many students move to write a largely argument-driven draft, only returning to the heaving mass of text to grasp blindly for quotations. You should avoid this situation at all costs, as the excerpts chosen in this way are almost always repetitive or irrelevant. Don't reference the text just to make your essay longer, fulfill a prompted quota, generalize or summarize. Quotations and citations have a great deal of potential, serving a vital function in your writing.

How will you unluck their potential?

-James Morganti

Your Paper: A Great Debate

Now that you've introduced readers to your topic and thesis, it's time to delve into your analysis. Body paragraphs are critical to your paper as they support, build, and expand the scope of your thesis. Without quotes, your paper tends to lack authority. Where's the proof? Where's the evidence?

If you were to engage in a debate, you would choose a side and offer facts, legislation, arguments, research, etc. to back it up. The same can be said for writing, substituting quotes from the text as defense for your argument. If you were debating without relying on supporting research, your side could be so easily dismissed. Personal opinion is not a reputable source for an argument or an essay.

You want to sway your audience, make them see your side. Perhaps your topic is edgy, maybe it goes against the mold. Your task, therefore, is to convince readers that your thesis is valid. The best way to do that? As you would for a debate, provide ample confirming evidence.

In the coming weeks, I will be running several posts by former peer tutor James Morganti. He will further discuss strategies to consider when drawing quotations from a text. Hopefully, you will find our perspective beneficial as you construct your own great debate--your paper.

~Mary

Harvesttime Wandering

Students often come into the Writing Center intent on “getting started,” focused on achieving clear objectives like writing an introduction or listing their thesis and topic sentences. And we’re always happy to help with that – it’s what we do. But something we could all benefit from – whether we’re writing or going about our daily lives – is wandering a bit more, taking time away from the careful pursuit of mapped goals.

It’s harvest-time in Connecticut and the Farmer’s Markets are colorful with winter squashes, fresh sweet peppers, the final bulgy tomatoes of the season. The leaves are falling but it’s not yet cold enough to hurry your steps. People get out this time of year – they pick apples and admire the scarecrows in each other’s yards. We take time to notice, to appreciate, to gather, to wander.

Similarly, in writing the shortest distance between two points is not always the most useful (or enjoyable!) distance to cross. Sometimes it’s better to wander a bit – start off on an unfamiliar path, use your inner sense of direction without consulting the “map” of structured outlines and forms, close your eyes and jump without knowing where you will land. If you’re willing to take chances like this, you allow your mind to work in ways that may be richer and more complicated – if not always as easy to recognize immediately. But wandering offers you a chance to notice, appreciate, and gather ideas so that you move through the territory of your writing in a more intimate and observant fashion than you might if you had proceeded in a linear, purposefully directed approach from the beginning.

There are lots of ways to do this. You might read the assignment and take a walk while you think about it. In the Writing Center we often suggest that writers choose a part of the reading they’re working with – a quote they like or maybe one that confuses them – and use this as a starting place, doing some writing that makes use of the quote in a way that speaks to a part of the assignment – speculating, stretching, turning language around in order to approach it from different angles. Another wandering start may involve simply having a conversation exploring different points of entry into the assignment, marking up the paper and taking note of key language, drawing arrows, grouping ideas, asking “how” and “why” often. Yet another path to take might involve drawing a map or chart as you walk through your thoughts, for example listing key characters/quotes/ideas from one reading across one axis and down the other listing characters/quotes/ideas from another reading, marking points of intersection with your observations about the suggestive possibilities of these combinations.

We don’t always find it easy to value time spent wandering. It can seem “unproductive” or “inefficient,” but time spent exploring early in your writing allows you to accumulate a richer, more complicated cornucopia of material to which you can return throughout your drafting and revision process.

Happy Harvesting!

~Wendy

Opening Act

Now that you've finished the book, received the assignment sheet, and brainstormed, let's do some writing! Each week, I'm going to focus on a particular aspect of essay writing. However, by no means are these mandatory instructions or steps for writing the perfect essay (I wish I knew that one!). They are just my own thoughts and interpretations based on my tutoring and academic experience. Take from it what you will...

The Introduction

It's your moment, your first steps on stage. You may have some stage fright opening for the packed crowd. You want to impress, you want to wow, but most of all you want to rock! Now, are you going to sing in a monotone voice? Are you going to sing off key, play out of tune? No. You're going to engage that audience. You're going to get them on their feet singing along!

The same goes for writing. How do you want to open that paper? How do you want to enter the writing stage? If you bring energy and enthusiasm, then you most certainly will engage your audience. And guess what that audience wants to hear. Sure, they like the greatest hits, but they also like witnessing something new. Often times, artists will test the waters with an audience. They'll introduce songs from an upcoming album and gauge audience response. Now, although you may not be hearing a roar of applause as classmates and professors read your essay, I guarantee that you've piqued their interest. Repeating the same idea, theme, or argument is like hearing the same song on re-play. It gets old after a while!

So, when you put pen to paper and introduce the author and title of the text, just remember this...you are the opening act, you have an audience ready and waiting, and you are going to rock!

~Mary

Own It

So, your first assignment has been distributed and it's due in a few weeks. Your initial instinct may be to stash your handout in a folder, zip it up in your backpack, or ... wait a second, you've already lost it. Thank goodness for extra copies on Huskyct!

The thing is, not waiting until the last minute can really work to your benefit. By taking small, achievable steps, that 5-7 page paper is not something to be stressed about; it's something of which to be proud.

Here's what I'd like you to do. Open up your backpack, take out your folder, download from Huskyct, and read the assignment sheet. What are you being asked? Do you have a choice of texts or topics? What kind of paper is being assigned?

-Academic exploratory essays strive to incorporate literary analysis, interpretation, and purpose.

-Comparison and contrast papers may seek to address the literary converstation between texts.

You may be asking yourself What's a literary conversation? And if you are, great. That means you're trying to make sense of your assigment in order to make it your own. Now, in a literary conversation, authors aren't actually talking to each other, per se, but certain texts may build off of a specific theme or argument. If you can connect the literature in your own analysis, then you can effectively add to the conversation.

So, in short, know your assignment. Not so that you can give your instructor what you perceive he or she "wants," but so you can take ownership. Put your individual stamp on your essay within the assignment's framework. Be bold, be unique, but most of all ... be yourself.

~Mary

Return to Writing

It may be 80° outside right now, but summer is slowly fading away. One minute we’re reading on a beach, the next we’re reading in a classroom. Backpacks replace tote bags, boots replace flip-flops, notebooks replace Facebook. Soon leaves will be crunching under our feet as we head to our classes, our daily planners filled with assignments and deadlines and projects and, yes, essays.

Don’t worry, though, because the Writing Center is here to help. We’ve expanded our hours (check the sidebar) and are available to assist you throughout the writing process. In addition, I will be undertaking a semester-long project of my own on our blog. Each week, I’ll be posting a step-by-step guide on how to write a literary analysis. I hope to demystify the writing process, break it down into smaller parts, and offer you an accessible resource to turn to as you tackle that paper.

Until then …
~Mary

Summer Vacation

The Writing Center blog is taking a summer vacation and will return in the fall. Thanks so much for a successful semester and I hope everyone has a great summer. Whether you're traveling to the beach, taking extra classes, or working, I hope you can all make time for some reading & writing. It's a great season for beach reads!

See you in September,
Mary

Back Alley Writing, Installment #1: Overcoming “Writer’s Shock”

Doesn’t he mean “writer’s block?” No, that’s not a typo, but a variation of sorts. I came up with the sibling term one sleepless night, sitting tortured before a blank Microsoft Word Document on my computer screen, at a point where “block” just wasn’t going to cut it. Holed-up novelists may work in anguish for months before they find the words to begin the next chapter of their book, but at least they have a chapter; I, a mere high school student, couldn’t get one godforsaken word down. So if you’re anything like me, you know that starting an essay can be as much if not more of a challenge than the actual writing process. A debilitating case of Not-Knowing-What-to-Write-About-itis, or “writer’s shock” for short, would attack me in two separate occasions: when I simply hated the selected text (usually “dull” or “too girly”) or when its brilliance or even just its historical reputation in literature had me doubting I had anything worth saying (often summed up with a “whoa, doggy” or “yowza”). I expect that if you share this problem, you probably fall into one category or the other.

Distaste for a given reading is usually not emotionally-based, but more often stems from an inability to relate to the characters or events in the novel existing in a setting, time period or culture vastly dissimilar (or comparatively lacking) to our own. I remember thinking in high school, “How can my teacher expect me to respond to this? I’m a punk kid from the suburbs and he wants me to discuss my views of 15^th century Victorian tea-parties?” If you find that you just can’t connect to the reading for any reason, try changing your outlook from analyzing the superficialities of a story to looking at everything in that story as part of a larger structure. For instance, the majority of characters are obviously supposed to be real in a story, but is important to be conscious in your interpretation that they are in actuality not at real at all. Even in non-fiction, a character may function as a tool for the author to make a point or as a metaphor for something below the surface. If you can start to see things in this way, you may be able to find new interest in the story. After all, history does indeed repeat itself and you are really not so different from anyone else—anything can be boiled down to the basics and made relatable. In that respect, there is a variety of ways to construe what you read and if you remember this, you can relate to anything and discuss it with genuine curiosity in your paper.

On the other hand, you may find a piece of writing to be compelling, but worry that it might be too complex or sophisticated for you to write an adequate response. The number of directions in which you can move with your thesis may overwhelm you before you even touch pen to paper, halting you right in your tracks. While you may agonize that you have nothing to say or no strong direction in which to move, this sense is deceptive: you are constantly reacting to what you read, relating it to your own beliefs, ideas and experiences, whether it’s something you find interesting or boring and whether you want to or not. These subconscious factors steer your writing in particular directions and make your writing yours. So relax. You always have ideas. You just have to learn the best ways to get these ideas out into the light. (On a side note, it's great to try to come up with original ideas in your writing; but if you can’t, don’t worry about it. You're still a student, so don’t feel like you have to write an entire book on it. Remember that your papers are meant to be exercises, not groundbreaking articles. It's OK to just fulfill the prompt.)

The most important thing to remember when facing writer's shock is to not underestimate your own mind. Next time, I will move into the actual writing process and discuss some techniques I use to get started and get my ideas out, including time management and free-writing. Thanks for reading and tune in next week!


-James

Invest in a Good Highlighter

Hey Readers,
As crunch time rolls around here on campus, are you feeling swamped? Maybe you have a lab report due in Chem., a test in Psyc., and a paper coming up in English. Time to prioritize! There's no worse feeling than trying to cram in that English paper the night before it's due (been there, done that). So, here's an insider tip on how to come up with an essay topic in advance ...

Step #1: Invest in a good highlighter (pink, blue, yellow--pick your fave)
Step #2: When reading your assigned pages for class, highlight sentences or passages that interest you. Maybe you're "going green," so highlight sections on nature or the environment. Interested in social networking? Highlight passages on friendship. Are you an artist? Highlight chapters on color imagery.
Step #3: After you've reached The End, flip through and see what kind of topics you highlighted.
Step #4: Combine your interest into a topic. How does color imagery reflect a deeper meaning in The Great Gatsby? What is Leslie Marmon Silko suggesting about nature's power in Ceremony?
Step #5: Focus. Finish your first draft.
Step #6: Sign up for an appointment at the Writing Center. Not sure if your thesis statement is strong enough? Having difficulty incorporating quotes? Struggling with topic sentences? We can help.

Good luck & Happy Highlighting!
~Mary

A Stroll Through the Back Alleys of Essay Writing: Introduction

I hate to admit it, but I came close to inadvertently reprising Judd Nelson’s classic Breakfast Club role in my own high school English years. Leaning back in my chair, arms crossed and feet up on the desk in a less than subtle display of defiance, I would watch the highly ritualized process of education transpiring before me with nothing but suspicion and contempt. Unlike Nelson’s character however, I was a bright kid with well-read opinions and a genuine interest in learning— I just found it hard to believe any “real-life” knowledge could develop in the ultra-sterile classroom environment that confined me.

My essays naturally represented my qualities better than my (lack of) class participation after I recognized them to be the closest to an unadulterated means of expressing myself as I was likely to get in school. And though I honestly didn’t care what grade I received as long as I felt personally fulfilled by my work, I would always start off my papers with a keen eye on the assignment sheet, perhaps in a meek last effort to appease my teacher. This courtesy would wear off quickly, however, as I would become more and more immersed in my writing.

Once I had sunken deep into my essay, the assigned topics I was instructed to consider would suddenly trigger a flood of new, more enticing concepts which would, in turn, inspire their own, and so on. This free associative way of thinking would produce a surplus of alluring raw material for me to explore, but like the children’s game of Telephone, as the concepts grew more creative and captivating, they would simultaneously wander further out of the sanctity of the original prompt. Blind to this grave issue by my own fascination, I would ultimately churn out a solid, compelling final product that hung only to the prompt by a token thread.

My teachers, witnessing this apparent disregard for instructions, could only lower my grades (and for good reason), but their handwritten annotations commended the dexterity and potency of my writing. I've come to realize since that I was unconsciously using my papers as an apparatus to flesh out, organize and cement my often chameleonic beliefs, opinions and ideas. After all, isn’t it true that any thought is really only half-baked until it can be written down and observed? The essay format, I discovered, is a perfect system for achieving one's intellectual actualization.

Looking back, I can say without hesitation that this was the best problem I could have faced in high school English. Without knowing it, I was compiling a mental set of personal writing practices which, when recognized, harnessed and energized would prove to be greatly advantageous in the self-sufficient world of college writing. I’ve found considerable success in these homegrown methods and want to share them with other students as a sort of back alley insight into the habitually over-produced essay (maybe even as a my final desperate stab at institutionalism).

For the next five weeks or so, I’ll be publishing a series of what I have found to be my most effective approaches to essay writing. The upcoming first installment will introduce the phenomenon I like to call “writer’s shock” and how you can go about avoiding it. Stay tuned!

-James

Hartford Campus Writing Event

Save the date--announcing a great opportunity to improve your writing! Attend The Teaching of Writing: A Workshop ...

Date: Friday, April 3rd
Time: 9:00A.M.-12:00P.M.
Place: Library Building, Room 308
Cost: Free!

If you are looking to learn new practices and strategies for teaching writing, then this is the event for you. Topics will include course planning, revision, assignment design, and more. Perfect for professors and teachers (both established and aspiring) and students, too. Breakfast & refreshments to be served. See the event website for more details.

Hope to see you there,
The Writing Center

Welcome

Hey Readers,
Welcome to the UConn Hartford Writing Center blog! Although you might be used to visiting us in Room 303, we hope you find our virtual space just as helpful and fun. Our goal is to keep up an active online conversation about the writing process, university events, tutor practices, as well as academic advice. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop us an email at hartfordwriting@gmail.com. And, as always, you're welcome to stop by the Center and say hello. With the last month of the spring semester in sight, we hope you all stay focused, positive, and open to all of writing's possibilities!

Happy Writing,
The Writing Center