The Center for Writing and Learning provides direct writing and learning support to all students in a constructive and enriching 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 past your degree program!
How the Center Operates
- Offering ongoing individual in-person or online consultations of 25 minutes or 50 minutes.
- 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.
- Offering a welcoming and dedicated writing space for all writers.
- Making available a hard-copy library of style manuals and other books for consultation.
- Hosting bi-monthly Writers’ Gatherings for those wanting to write in solidarity with others.
Where, When, and Who
Location: Long Hall 219
Hours: Check the Center door for our daily on-campus and online hours.
Contact: Shan Overton, director of the Center for Writing and Learning Support, by e-mail at moverton@pts.edu or by phone at 412-924-1454.
