Today@Sam Article

Here To Help: The Writing Center

Jan. 23, 2020
SHSU Media Contact: Hannah Haney

Story by: Mikah Boyd 

“Here to Help” is a series focused on educating students on all the services available at Sam Houston State University. Many times students are unaware that these services are often offered at no cost with a Bearkat OneCard. If your department or student service would like to be featured for a future story email today@shsu.edu.

Many core classes that Sam Houston State University students take are writing intensive and for those not majoring in a related field, writing and formatting essays can be a struggle. Writing also follows people out of undergrad via master’s thesis and Ph.D. dissertations and can pose a real problem to those who are not writing-oriented.

The Writing Center, a division of the Academic Success Center helps students create ideas for essays, identify their target audience, organize their papers, improve writing styles, and teach them how to proofread. They can even help students after the paper has been turned in and graded by interpreting the comments left by instructors and help students to avoid making the same mistakes. The Writing Center is located in Farrington 111 and is open Monday-Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for appointments and Friday between 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for walk-ins.

Students can also have online sessions through Zoom, an online video conference app. Using Zoom, students can work through their writing issues with a tutor from their dorm or apartment using only a laptop with a webcam and microphone. These sessions can be very beneficial for students who take courses online or away from the main campus, as they are meeting the campus tutors and getting the same experience as those who meet face-to-face. Online tutoring sessions through Zoom are available by appointment only, which must be booked a day in advance. Sessions are available Monday to Thursday 12 - 7 p.m. or Sunday 2 - 7 p.m. In order to receive tutoring at the Writing Center in-person or through Zoom, schedule an appointment online or over the phone at (936) 294-3680. 

Since there are many students with loaded schedules, the Writing Center has conveniently posted many helpful handouts on their webpage. The handouts cover a variety of topics such as types of essays, parts of an essay, the writing process, punctuation, grammar and many different citation styles. These resources are meant serve as a basic guide to students as they write their essays, lab papers, resumes, etc., but the tutelage may not be as impactful as referencing your textbook or consulting your professor. The Writing Center not only helps students with writing essays, they also provide various instructional videos for students to help them succeed. The videos cover topics like concentration, time management and textbook reading strategies.

The Writing Center helps faculty as well by offering orientation sessions for courses that are writing-intensive. The orientation session only takes 10 minutes and can be held in class upon request, although in-center orientations are preferred. The orientation sessions are designed to teach students to revise their papers, as the Writing Center wants students to edit their own papers in order to develop awareness when they are writing. They also host targeted in-class presentations that provide tips and tricks for college writing and briefly discuss different citation styles and how to use them properly. For the presentations, it is preferred that the faculty member is present to answer instructor-specific questions. Faculty members that want to schedule an orientation or presentation can reach the Writing Center via phone at (936) 294-3680 or by emailing asc@shsu.edu.

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