The Writing Center is OPEN

The early bird catches the worm, so don't slack off this semester. Get your writing help TODAY !

Semester Hours: 
Monday        9:00 - 3:00
Tuesday       10:30 - 6:00
Wednesday  10:00 - 3:00
Thursday      10:30 - 4:00

Even Bigger News!

The writing center is open on Friday for finals "Exam Cram" Sessions !

Bonus Hours

Friday April 29 10:00-1:00
Monday May 2 10:00-4:00
Tuesday May 3 10:00-4:00

In addition to our regular hours.


Be here or Be square,
~Christine

Big News!

Another busy year at the writing center!

New hours for Spring 2011:

Monday 10:00 - 1:00
Tuesday 10:00 - 4:00
Wednesday 10:00 - 3:00
Thursday 10:00 - 4:30

Also:
Uconn's 6th Annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing is Friday, March 25th!

~ Christine

Extra Extra!

Extra Extra...read all about it! We have breaking news from the Writing Center that you won't want to miss. Bonus hours will be available Monday and Tuesday, May 3rd & 4th, from 10:00-3:30!

This might be your last chance to strengthen your thesis and sharpen your analysis. Share the news with your friends and sign up for a session today!

~Mary

Writing Warm-up

As the temperatures begin to rise outside, motivation begins to drop. Students find themselves in a sort of tug-of-war...taking a walk with friends or writing a research paper, playing frisbee or taking notes on an assigned reading, hanging out in the courtyard or holing up in the library. It's pretty obvious what the outcome will be. Mr. Sun defeats the competition with its powerful, blinding pull.

But wait! Your paper is due in a week and this might be one of your last chances to boost your grade before finals. Compromise. Brainstorm under an oak tree, draft on your deck, build your body paragraphs on a bench, type in the shade. Use the weather to your advantage. If you love the great outdoors, then this is your perfect writing season.

Finally, learn a lesson from this weather pattern. Don't forget to heat up your own writing. Put passion and fire into your essay. Make your argument so bright your readers will need shades! Craft your own literary heatwave.

~Mary

P.S. Sign up for an appointment at the Center to keep your writing forecast sunny!

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

You may have noticed that things look different around here. Over the past week or so, there has been a lot of construction going on, and I'm not just talking about our campus. A lot of work goes into construction, whether for a house, a blog, or even an essay.

Sometimes you have to do a complete overhaul. Maybe your thesis isn't supporting the body of your essay, maybe your web site isn't getting enough hits, maybe your house lacks major curb appeal. So, what to do? Put on your protective gloves, your hardhat and goggles, and get to work!

It can be daunting to start over, but maybe the foundation of your essay can be saved. You don't have to necessarily bulldoze what you've already written...work with it. If you like the quotes you've selected from a text, do some freewriting until you figure out what makes them important. Underline one sentence from each of your body paragraphs that you think sums up that paragraph's purpose.  Voila!  You've just constructed a new topic sentence.

So as you build your own writing, remember that the process will likely be labor intensive. As actress Lily Tomlin says, "The road to success is always under construction." Keep at it!

~Mary

The Science of Writing

There are all kinds of writing out there, from creative to analytical. When you think of writing, maybe a New York Times bestseller comes to mind or a revered classic. Here in the Writing Center, we often consult with students on academic exploratory essays. Whether or not the book's genre is American literature or British or Modern or Medieval, the students' writing itself is geared for analysis. After reviewing mostly English papers, it can be easy to overlook other types of writing, namely the scientific kind.

If you've ever taken a course in Biology, Chemistry, or Physics, then you know that there can be a lot of writing involved. This writing typically comes in the form of the lab report. Within the report, you will likely have multiple sections. First you would include an introduction followed by a section on methods and results. One of the most important sections would be the discussion where you interpret the experiment's results and argue why they are significant. Here, you reflect and interpret and provide evidence. Hmm...does this sound familiar? It is the discussion section which surprisingly looks a lot like a literary analysis.

Can writing be boiled down to a science? I'll argue...not quite. Writing can be fluid, free, and limitless. It does not need to follow a formula to be deemed acceptable. In fact it is often the avant garde writing that grabs our attention as well as acclaim. However, I think that a lot can be learned from both the sciences and the liberal arts. Enrolling in English courses may help you become a better scientist, and vice versa. It all comes down to analysis, whether it's of an experiment or a text.

So, as you get ready for your weekly Chem lab or Physics experiment, embrace the goggles and beakers and microscopes...they just might help you ace your English paper or pen the next great American novel.

~Mary