Writing Short

This is writing short. Some call it “removing the fluff” or “stripping the words.” But I call it writing short. Two words do the trick.  When we write our essays, whether it be creative fiction, a lab report, or a writing center blog post, asking ourselves the questions about our writing’s essence should be at...

Reflecting on This Year and Moving into the New Year

As the year 2020 reaches its long-awaited end, I think it's important to take a moment and reflect on all the events that occurred over this past year, whether personal, regional or global. This year was definitely interesting and chaotic for me, but I was able to learn a lot about myself. As the world...

Applying Psychology to the Writing Center: Reinforcers and Punishers

When a student gives a professor and a classmate a draft of a writing assignment, it is usually returned with scribbles of amendments and suggestions. This feedback is meant to help the student make revisions that can strengthen their writing ability. Of course, the writer has the right to choose whether or not to incorporate...

The Thesis of My Eye: Writing a Thesis Statement

So you have to write a paper. We’ve all been there. Usually when I’m writing a paper, the most challenging part for me is the introduction paragraph. Specifically, the thesis sentence, because I feel like it is one of the most important parts. I look at the thesis statement as the backbone of my papers....

Why Procrastination is Good (Sometimes)

You probably read the title of this article and thought, “Great! Even the writing center is telling me to put off my paper until 10PM the day it's due, so I should be good!” I want to immediately clarify that I mean nothing of the sort, and as a repeat offender of this kind of...

Make Your Paper Pristine While in Quarantine

Hello All! I hope this post is finding you in good health and safety! I know these are trying times for all of us, especially with classes transitioning to a virtual setting. Fear not, the Writing Center and other tutoring services are still available online. However, sometimes you won’t be able to make an appointment...

First Person Pronouns Are Not Four Letter Words

The first essay we all wrote as a child was most likely, “What I did during summer vacation.”  Every sentence included the words ‘I’ or ‘me’. The word ‘I’ was even in the title. Then, at some point, we were informed that writing in the first person was henceforth forbidden in all academic writing, relegated...

An Open Letter to My Nemesis, U.S. Academic Writing

Dear U.S. Academic Writing,           I pen this open letter to you knowing full well that in certain cases, you do have your uses.  You know how to get your point across effectively. You are succinct. You are, indeed, an acceptable purveyor of argument and actuality.  However, I object to your...

Giving Attention to the Aesthetics of Writing

Maybe I’m superficial, but I like to look at a piece of writing before reading it. I could discuss Cummings’ “r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r” or  some other avant-garde, experimental literature, but there’s likely no benefit in that. As students, we’re probably most familiar with academic writing and writing assignments formatted in APA or MLA. Each of these formatting...

Overcoming “I’m Sorry”

How often have you sat down with someone--be it your tutor, your fellow classmate, or your friend--and mumbled some variation of “I’m sorry” before handing them a piece of your writing to review and edit? Chances are pretty high that this has happened to you more than a time or two, and that’s okay! I...