Opinion
Student urges others to visit on-campus Writing Center
October 2, 2014
The problem with school is the homework.
We attend classes, learn new concepts, and then we are expected to display this knowledge in the form of assignments, which isn’t necessarily bad, but the tasks are time-consuming and occasionally difficult.
There is just so much riding on the ability to do well in college that sometimes we just want to pull our hair out.
Before you become bald, there is a solution!
UW-River Falls offers its students free tutoring services. This week I am promoting the Writing Center, which is located on the second floor in Kleinpell Fine Arts.
I am sure you all have a general idea what the Writing Center does. They help with writing. Seems obvious, right?
But many people have misconceptions about what exactly the Writing Center does. The tutors are not human spell-checkers. They will not underline misspelled words in red ink or tell you where all the fragment sentences are with green ink. Well, they will if you ask nicely, but they would prefer to help you with other things.
One thing you can be sure about is that the tutors have the skills to help with your assignment. Not just anyone can walk in and become a tutor. Before you become a writing tutor, you have to pass a semester-long class that teaches you how to be a good tutor.
Before you can get into the writing tutor class, you have to get a recommendation from two professors and send in a writing sample. To be a good writing tutor, you have to be a good writer. The class provides the rest of the skills needed to be an excellent tutor.
But why should you go to the Writing Center? You’re in college; you’ve written papers before. Chances are you know what you are doing by now.
The thing is, writing is an art. While some “art” can be better than others, you wouldn’t call a five-year-old’s drawing art, because the craft is never considered perfect.
There is always another technique to learn or strategy to perfect; writing is similar. Even professional writers have things that they could work on.
Plus, let’s think about it logically, the Writing Center isn’t like those peer review sessions you may have had to do in your English 100 or 200 classes. The tutor isn’t going to look at your paper and simply say: “You’re good.”
They will actually help to make your paper better. This will give you a better grade, allow you to do better in the class, and give you a better grade point average, which can help you get a better job and then theoretically, a better life.
Also, in my semi-biased opinion, the tutors are generally nice and smart people. They know what they are doing and can do it in a way that will not make you feel stupid or bad about your writing. And hey, you might make a new friend.
At the Writing Center, every student gets a personalized treatment. You won’t feel like the tutor is just going through the motions robotically.
The tutors can give you general help or if you have something specific you want to work on they can help you with that as well. The Writing Center wants to help you improve your writing long term, but they can also help with short-term paper problems.
The Writing Center is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday’s. You can make an appointment or just walk in.
Also, don’t forget the other tutoring services UWRF offers. You’re already paying for it, so you might as well give it a shot! Your grades won’t suffer for it.
Rachel Molitor is a student at UW-River Falls.