By Elizabeth Roth
Oftentimes as I’m working at reception, or even as I’m idly doing homework waiting for an appointment to begin, I have a front-row seat to students as they walk into the Writing Center (often for the first time). Sheer panic in their eyes. Reaching out to the sign-up sheet and back again. They stutter over their request for an appointment. They avoid eye contact. They shuffle. Why does this happen? How can you be confident and friendly when you’re ready for your appointment? Is there some hidden power that the tutors have to wield against you should you make a mistake?
We’re students like you!
All of the tutors in the Writing Center are Undergraduate students and Graduate students. We are likely taking the same classes you are, and we have the same problems as you do. We have spliced our sentences, cited sources wrong, and simply put a placeholder for evidence we don’t quite want to add yet. Any mistake you have made, we have made, too! That’s part of the reason we can provide you with helpful advice. We can relate to frustrating prompts and overwhelming class schedules, and we will not judge you, I promise. Now that you know we’re not going to bite your head off when you walk in, what should you bring with you to feel most prepared?
Preparedness comes in stages
I have seen all levels of preparedness when it comes to drafts. Some people just bring in the prompt to brainstorm outline ideas, and some bring in full drafts with works cited, i’s dotted, and t’s crossed. What do I recommend you bring to feel the most prepared and confident? Your prompt for the paper and a rough first draft (maybe a pen too). Bringing in the prompt for the paper lets your tutor know what to look out for and what your goals are. Knowing the specific requirements that your professor has laid out for the assignment helps us give the most accurate advice to help you achieve what they are looking for. Otherwise, we’re taking a shot in the dark and can only truly help you with grammar and structure. A rough first draft makes sure you’ve thought about the paper before bringing it in and lets us have a framework to base our feedback on. We can only help you as much as you let us, and when you bring in your prompt and a draft it helps all of us feel more confident going into the session! But what if you have no idea where to start?
We all have to start somewhere.
Past tutors have covered how to start up the writing process, but some good general advice is to read over the prompt and make an outline. Outlines can be as sparse as:
Intro
Body 1
Body 2
Body 3
Conclusion
Of course, I recommend that an outline be slightly more fleshed out than that. What do you want to say with this paper? That is your thesis statement, which will go in your introduction in addition to introductory information on your topic. How will you prove your thesis statement is correct? Use evidence from the text in your body paragraphs. Remember that everything should tie back to your thesis statement. How do you wrap up the paper? Summarize your strongest arguments in the conclusion. No new evidence, just making sure the reader knows you proved your point in the paper. It practically writes itself. If you want more comprehensive steps on how to develop your outline, check out these blog posts by Abby Ponder and Sarah Stevens. Our job is to help you figure out what comes after you have a basic idea of what you want to do with your paper. So, how can you help us help you?
Be prepared and engaged
Once you have your draft and prompt, come in and be prepared to take notes! Your time will be much better spent if you can remember the feedback we give you. If you’d rather have more direct advice from your tutor, ask them to leave comments on your paper. These comments can be on either a hardcopy or a virtual copy—it’s just important to remember what you’ve talked about. You’ll have a much better time in your session if you can engage with your tutor! Like anyone, a little small talk gets those gears turning, and a little goes a long way to helping a good session turn into a great one. Part of preparedness is coming with your draft and prompt in hand, but another important aspect is time management! If you come rushing into the Writing Center the day the paper is due, half an hour before class, there’s not much your tutor can do for you. Especially if you’re worried about structural or organizational changes you have to make, coming in the day that the paper is due is going to make things difficult for you. Your tutors have been taught how to prioritize, but prioritizing is not the vote of confidence you want to have when you’re submitting your paper! Even a day in between your appointment and the deadline can help your session to be more productive, and it can make you feel less rushed going into the editing process.
Editing process? Really?
Yes! Editing process. It’s not as scary or as time-consuming as it sounds. Emily Diehl wrote about the ins and outs of the editing process in her blog post. First drafts are a great place to get your ideas down. Second drafts are the best place to polish. You’ll feel much more comfortable going into the Writing Center knowing that your tutor can help point you in the right direction for edits. Even if you come in with a bare-bones concept, we are ready and willing to talk that through with you. Talking your paper through with another person can be especially helpful to the writing process. Not only can you catch some grammar mistakes, but you can also make sure you know enough about the direction of your paper to explain it to someone else. Of course, some of the comments the tutors make can be taken as suggestions, but often we just want to help you make the best of your paper. Your tutor will likely not make a suggestion unless it’s something that you can use to help improve your paper. We will be happy to help with whatever you want to work on, but either way, it’s always helpful to have an idea in mind of what you want to work on before you get to the Writing Center. This gives your appointment some direction and makes sure you and your tutor aren’t left with too much to tackle.
You’re done!
Appointment times go very fast when you are really into the editing process. Forty minutes pass in the blink of an eye, and your time is suddenly up. You’re encouraged to write down some final thoughts about what you and your tutor talked about, since it’ll be helpful for remembering later. Sometimes there’s candy floating around the office, so you could grab some on your way out. You have made it through the harrowing process of discussing your paper with another student—so how do you feel? Hopefully less overwhelmed, if you followed this list.
Additional resources to help you feel prepared
You can find FAQs about going into your appointment here.
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