We Don’t Bite! How to Feel Confident Going Into Your Writing Center Appointment

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.

Listen to Your Writing

Author: Fallon Russell

Editor: DJ Cox

When it comes to proofreading my own work, I struggle. As I look over my writing, my brain often skips over typos, weird phrasing, grammatical errors, and confusing sentences because I’m so familiar with my own work. Inside my head, all of my thoughts make sense. When I read my writing silently, my brain automatically makes sense of mistakes that may be obvious to someone else.

If this struggle seems familiar to you, try reading your writing out loud and listening to how your writing sounds. Since I began implementing this strategy in my own work, proofreading has been a much smoother and more effective process. It was odd reading my own writing to only myself. Typically, if I read anything out loud, I’m reading to someone else, but reading out loud alone forced me to slow down and notice the details in my writing.

It may be uncomfortable at first, but when you hear the words you write out loud instead of in your head, it’s easier to notice an unclear sentence, a poorly chosen word, or a repetitive paragraph. It’s also easier to identify typos, missing words, or extra words. Often, these mistakes are easier heard than seen. If you encounter an error when reading out loud, it’s noticeable. A typo or grammatical mistake might make you stop and think, ‘What was this supposed to say?’ Once a mistake is recognized, it can then be corrected.

Sometimes what we want to say seems fine in our heads, but when we say it out loud, it just doesn’t come out right. Reading aloud forces us to engage with our writing and pay closer attention to detail than reading silently. When we listen to our writing and hear our mistakes, we have a better understanding of how to revise our work. If you find that you’re repeating yourself a lot, try varying your sentence structure and word choice. If you notice your rhythm is choppy, try combining short sentences to create a better flow.

Another option is to have someone else read your paper out loud to you. Ask a roommate or friend to read your work to you so that you can hear it in someone else’s voice. Also, it’s never a bad idea to have another pair of eyes look over your work. And don’t forget, you can always set up an appointment at The Writing Center; we’re happy to help!

As college students, it’s important that we learn strategies to help ourselves improve our own work. Not only will this help us succeed in college, but it will also make us valuable employees in the future. If you’re in need of other tips, check out Abby Ponder’s blog post for more advice about writing and editing your own drafts. Remember, next time you complete a writing assignment, try giving it a listen. Happy writing!

How to Draft a Persuasive Book Pitch

Author: DJ Cox

A genre that every student should be familiar with is the academic textbook. Most college students will see a textbook in their career focused on a niche subject. A question that many English majors may ask when looking at these texts is how do the authors of these books convince the publishers to approve the production of their oddly specific text? The answer is that the author was able to craft a convincing pitch for their book. This report will focus on how writers and editors can use effective rhetorical strategies and some concise and clear wording to market their work effectivlly.

Know How to Discuss Content

An author needs to know how to talk about their content. Katelyn Knox, a writing blogger and Associate Professor of French at the University of Central Arkansas, suggest asking the author, “[c]an you describe your project to intelligent non-academics in ways that get them excited about the types of questions you’re asking and objects you’re analyzing” (Knox, 2017)? Many subject specialists struggle with articulating their knowledge to those outside of their content areas. Authors must know how to simplify their language to increase the accessibility of their writing, such as the editor reading over their book pitch. By maintaining an easily accessible tone throughout their pitch, the author stands a better chance of convincing the acquisitions editor to accept their work. 

Know What the Publisher Wants

Selecting a publishing house can be a difficult process. A freshman author is exposed to a vast sea of options and may struggle to find a publisher that fits well with their project. A suggestion that Manya Whitaker from The Chronicle of Higher Education has for authors in this situation is, “If your institution doesn’t have specific publication requirements, then start your search by looking at the books that influenced your project. Who published those texts? You want a press with a strong publication record in your subject area” (Whitaker, 2018). By looking at other works that have been accepted by a publication or seeing which publishing house commonly produces works similar to their work, an author can tailor their materials to best meet their publisher’s requirements.

Most publishers have a set of criteria that each submission must follow if the author hopes to have their work accepted. By understanding these rules, the author can save themselves a lot of time not only in the writing process but also in selecting the publishing house they wish to work with. An author who is hoping to publish their work should thoroughly research their options to ensure that they are submitting to the publishing houses that offer them the best chance at being accepted.  

Know How to Use Persuasive Language

Using persuasive language is arguably the most important aspect of drafting a successful book pitch. An author can talk all day about their content but if they cannot convince their audience, the publisher, that their knowledge is not only important but also marketable, then they are wasting their time. Whitaker has a checklist of requirements that every proposal should use while developing their pitch:

 “In no more than a page and a half, you should be able to convince an editor that:

• Your topic fills an obvious gap in the field.
• The content will be innovative while still being in conversation with other texts.
• The intended audience will find the work useful.
• The book will be well aligned with the press’s current and future publishing goals” (2018).

The above requirements are useful to an aspiring author because by ensuring that these criteriums are met before submitting work for publication, the writer will show to the acquisitions editor that they have considered the impact that their work could have on the publisher. This would vastly improve the author’s likelihood of being accepted for publication.

The Role of Editors in the Pitch Genre

Professional writers can be on both sides of the publication process that have been discussed by either editing the work of an author or through the work of an acquisition editor. In both cases, the role of editors remains the same: to analyze the authors’ content and to determine if their work is sufficient for publication. While the two roles are looking out for their respective client’s interests, the goal of producing a high-quality product remains the same. By understanding the conventions of the pitch genre, the professional editor will ensure that they consistently please their clientele by producing consistently high quality work.

If you are working on a book pitch or any other piece of writing, visit the WKU Writing Center today! While our tutors are not editors, we can help you address issues such as accessibility and persuasiveness in your writing to make your work shine.

Works Cited

Knox, K. (2018, December 21). Should You Pitch A Book to an Editor at a Conference? Consider This. Retrieved February 11, 2020, from https://katelynknox.com/writing-first-humanities-book/pitch-book-at-a-conference/

Whitaker, M. (2018, March 6). Crafting a Convincing Book Proposal. Retrieved February 11, 2020, from https://www.chronicle.com/article/Crafting-a-Convincing-Book/242741

Thinking Critically About Revision

by Kylie Carlson

How often in a heated argument do you find yourself rewriting a text message? Backspacing, rewording, rereading over and over until you’ve got the perfect argument to get your point across. You think back over who you’re sending it to; you try to understand what theories they already have and believe in; you reevaluate what your objective is and what you want your argument to be about. This little text message might make the world of difference, and in our fast-paced society, you often will write out the text and then read back over it before you send the epiphanic message that will solidify the winning of your argument. You’ve done all of this now for just a simply text message, so why can’t you do this in your academic writing as well?

How to Use Semicolons and Conjunctive Adverbs

by Matt Steinhafel

Warning: This post contains a grammar lesson.

Self-Editing Techniques

Everyone Edits

While we at the writing center are here to help you revise your papers, it’s always a good practice to review your work before turning it in no matter how good of a writer you are.   Sometimes not worrying about surface level errors is a great way to let your thoughts flow when drafting, so going back to edit is necessary to making sure your ideas are clear and free of mistakes or errors.