|
First-year student Roberta Schiller has a seven-page paper due in one week for her honors theatre course, and "it's worth a HUGE portion of my grade," she says.
Roberta, an English major who plans to attend law school, has already completed her first draft of the paper. Now she wants help clarifying her thesis and explaining some of her complex theories. Where does she turn? The University's Center for Writing.
Individual attention
 The Center for Writing offers 28 writing consultants who work with students on a daily basis. These consultants come from a wide variety of disciplines, educational levels, and backgrounds. Students can bring a paper or assignment to the Center for Writing and get in-depth feedback. As writing consultant Josh Grinolds puts it, "[consultants] look at papers for clarity, organization, structure, and content," he says. "We aren't here just to proofread."
Today, for 45 minutes, Roberta has a one-on-one appointment with Dave Wehner, a Ph.D. candidate from the English department. After carefully reading Roberta's draft, he helps her identify the paper's overall strengths and weaknesses and suggests ways to improve it.
Roberta appreciates the individual attention. "[The Center] is convenient, it's helpful, and it's comfortable," she says. "It's easy to make appointments, and they offer good insight and tips."
Writing to learn
Dr. Kirsten Jamsen, director of the Center for Writing, works frequently with students like Roberta. Kirsten believes writing is a fundamental tool for learning. "When you write a paper, you're engaging with the content and challenging yourself to know it very intimately," she says. "The more you write about anything, the more you learn about it."
|
Examples of Writing-Intensive Courses |
- Introduction to Shakespeare
- Law in Society
- Introductory Biology: Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Perspectives
- History of Western Music
- Introductory College Physics
| As Kirsten's philosophy suggests, writing skills have a great emphasis at the University of Minnesota. Whatever you intend to study--from social sciences to engineering or health sciences--you will take several Writing-Intensive courses, classes designed to prepare you for success in the academic and business world. Writing-Intensive courses integrate writing assignments with course content, and they are available in every department. In a Writing-Intensive course, you might learn formats of writing that pertain to a certain field, such as a critical essay for women's studies or a lab report for microbiology.
To provide specialized support for students from all departments, Center for Writing consultants specialize in a variety of subjects, including anthropology, biology, business, chemistry, history, literature, political science, religious studies, Spanish, statistics and women's studies.
As for Roberta, she's anxious to learn more from these experts. At the end of her appointment with Dave, she eagerly requests another session. She'd like him to take another look at her paper in a few days, once she's applied some of his suggestions.
Writing resources for University of Minnesota students
Center for Writing
306B Lind Hall
http://writing.umn.edu or 612-625-1893
Disability Services
180 McNamara Alumni Center
http://ds.umn.edu or 612-626-1333
General College Writing Center
Academic Resource Center
11 Appleby Hall
http://www.gen.umn.edu/resources/arc/writing or 612-624-0342
Learning Resources Center
204 Walter Library
http://lrc.lib.umn.edu/ or 612-624-1584
Online Writing Center
http://www.owc.umn.edu
SMART Center
43 Classroom Office Building, Saint Paul Campus
http://www.rhetoric.umn.edu/smartcenter/
University Libraries
16 locations
http://www.lib.umn.edu or 612-626-2227
The University of Minnesota strives to enhance your experience in every aspect: academic, cultural, career, and personal. To learn more about the University of Minnesota experience, you can also read "Off to a Great Start" or "Students Experience a Big-Ten Welcome."
Other articles
|
