Graduate students use the Writing Center on campus for a variety of purposes, including:
- To receive pedagogic mentoring for the teaching of writing
- To review the fundamentals of writing (for international graduate students)
- To review the fundamentals of writing (for graduate students who are returning to school or who are not comfortable with the current preparation)
- To review documents they are working on for classes
- To review thesis or dissertation materials
- To review proposal materials (including grant application materials)
- To review job market materials
- To receive thesis or dissertation coaching
- To work on general writing skills (usually on a weekly basis with a regular tutor)
At the graduate level, your subject knowledge is advanced; therefore, keep in mind that Writing Center staff are not subject area experts. We are, however, experts at identifying and responding appropriately to particular audiences, for specific purposes, and within specific contexts. Thus, Writing Center staff can work with you, using the Socratic method, to determine the conventions and expectations of writers and readers in your field. Writing Center staff are also language experts, so they can also work with you to improve your self-editing skills.
Recommendations:
- Use the “Limit To” feature of our online scheduler when you make an appointment, selecting tutors who are identified as graduate-level tutors and/or as experts in the kind/s of documents you are working on or the style you are following.
- Plan to only work on a micro-section of any particular longer text that you are working on. To work through an introductory chapter to a dissertation, it may take several 60-minute appointments.
- Be thorough and specific when you schedule an online appointment. For example, if you want to workshop a cover letter for a scholarship, include a link to the scholarship page so that your tutor can review the guidelines, etc. As an additional example, if you want to workshop a class writing assignment, be specific about what you want to work on…tone, persuasiveness, concision…?