Services for Master's Students
The Center for Writing and Learning provides direct writing and learning support to all students in a constructive, creative, and collaborative atmosphere.
SERVICES FOR MASTER'S STUDENTS
- Review the writing process from start to finish.
- Assist you in understanding writing assignments (including a course paper, a thesis, a final integrative essay, or other writing exercises), the genres assigned, and general expectations for graduate writing.
- Work with you to generate ideas and begin researching for a paper.
- Help you in writing and revising a well-focused thesis statement.
- Support your editing process by giving you feedback on your writing at the word level, the sentence level, the paragraph level, and the paper level.
- Teach you the basics of the various style and formatting requirements.
- Advise you in how to practice good proofreading skills.
- Work with you on developing stronger and more efficient reading skills.
- Aid you in developing a time management plan for an essay assignment, the whole term, or even an exam.
- Consider with you the complex rhetorical context in which you write and its effects on your writing.
- Foster your consideration of the ways in which excellence in writing will be helpful to you beyond your degree program!
HOW THE CENTER OPERATES
- Offering ongoing individual in-person or online consultations of 25 minutes or 50 minutes once per week.
- Developing and presenting workshops for small groups, as requested by students and/or faculty.
- Giving presentations in specific classes, as requested by faculty members.
- Initial consultations followed by referrals to your professors and/or to the research librarians in the Barbour Library.
- Providing online resources, such as “How To” guides for various assignments or aspects of the writing process and links to the very best online writing labs and style guides. See the Writing Center tab in our Learning Management System for handouts of all kinds.
- A special PTS Citation Guide developed following PTS professors’ typical requirements for papers. This is on the Writing Center tab in the Learning Management System.
- Offering a welcoming and dedicated writing space for all writers. Contact us for access to the space.
- Making available a hard-copy library of style manuals and other books for consultation. Contact us to borrow one.
WHERE, WHEN, AND WHO
On-Campus Locations: Main Office in Long Hall 219 and the Rossin Writing Lab on the first floor of the Barbour Library
Hours: We arrange a mutually convenient time to meet with students, Mondays through Fridays during regular business hours. These consultations may be in person, by phone, or via Zoom.
Contact: Dr. Shan Overton, director of the Center for Writing and Learning Support, by e-mail at or by phone at 412-924-1454.