Graduate students use the Writing Center, too!
The Writing Center provides individualized, in-depth support for writing that graduate courses and advising don’t always offer. We can help you develop your writing skills beyond what is explicitly taught in graduate school! Consider reading our consultants’ bios on our online scheduler to see what consultant may be a good fit for you!
Read on for more information about what we can offer graduate students and how!
What can we do for you?
Instead of navigating the complex expectations of graduate writing on your own, Writing Center consultations can help you…
- Narrow research questions
- Craft original and appropriately supported claims
- Develop an authoritative, scholarly voice
- Unpack the requirements for writing in a specific genre
- Rethink word choice and stance-taking moves
- Address grammatical issues that impact the reception of high-stakes writing projects
- Organize writing according to appropriate genre conventions
- Provide convincing evidence and research
- Frame your work to suit a particular audience
…and more!
What type of works can I bring?
Our consultants are trained to work with you at any stage of the writing process: Planning, drafting, revising, and or editing! Common types of work we collaborate with graduate students on are:
- Literature reviews
- Annotated bibliographies
- Abstracts
- Article analyses
- Case studies
- Theses
- Dissertations
- Portfolios
…And much, much more!
How can using the Writing Center benefit you?
A study conducted by Lenaghan (2018), in Re/Writing the Center: Approaches to Supporting Graduate Students in the Writing Center, found that graduate writers who routinely use Writing Center services benefit in a number of ways:
- The strategic questioning and open dialogue of Writing Center consultations help graduate writers identify and address patterns of error in their writing.
- Consultations help graduate writers understand the rhetorical, disciplinary, and or genre features of the kinds of writing they will have to engage in throughout their careers.
- Because Writing Center consultants provide an audience’s perspective of the text, graduate writers are better able to make their writing more accessible to non-specialised audiences.
- Consultations help graduate writers develop long-term writing process skills, such as managing writing apprehension, planning for deadlines, working through writer’s block, and so on.
In what ways can we meet your needs?
Graduate writing often requires more time for discussion and revision, so we offer grad students longer appointments: Your sessions can be as short as 30 minutes or as long as 90 minutes. Moreover, you are welcome to schedule recurring appointments for up to 4 hours per week!
While all of our consultants are trained to support graduate writing, you are welcome to schedule appointments with our professional (graduate) consultants! You can find a list of our consultants, and their bios, on our online scheduler!