The Writing Center will be opening for the new semester on Wednesday, August 25, at 8:00am!

Our normal hours of operation for the Fall 2010 Semester can be found below.

(A more thorough schedule will be posted shortly.)

CALL (607) 778-5632 OR 778-5038 TO SCHEDULE APPOINTMENTS

ON-LINE REQUESTS WILL BE COVERED DURING TUTORING HOURS

LOCATED IN L-8

]]> http://sunybroome.edu/custom/writingcenter/2010/05/19/933/feed/ 0 http://sunybroome.edu/custom/writingcenter/2010/05/13/638/ http://sunybroome.edu/custom/writingcenter/2010/05/13/638/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 19:35:54 +0000 Susan Williams http://sunybroome.edu/custom/writingcenter/?p=638 MATT’S BIG PLAN: Write essay the day it’s due.

DON’T BE LIKE MATT!

Call the Writing Center (778-5632) or stop by (L8) to make an appointment today.  For the love of procrastination, let’s stop the tears.

Fall 2009:  Over 1000 served!

At the most basic level we write to express our ideas, to share them with others.   As Nigel Hamilton so aptly noted, “If the reader doesn’t understand what you’re saying, you’re talking to yourself.”

Writers publish to communicate.  So the writer’s biggest fear is being unclear.

This is where the Writing Center comes in.  A writing tutor is a live audience member, one who gives instant feedback on the clarity and presentation and development of ideas.  Tutors ask questions.  They play Devil’s Advocate.  Their comments model the questions students should ask of their own writing in the future.  Together they develop strategies they might use to address those questions.

Professional writers seek feedback and revise.  Student writers should do the same.

All writers learn as they write:  they learn about their topic, they learn about themselves, and they learn about their relationship with their audience.  Writing tutors illuminate these processes and help writers bring their words more fully to life.  From beginning students struggling to express themselves to advanced writers seeking confirmation of the power of their words, all will find that the Writing Center tutors provide a supportive audience in helping them achieve their goals.

In tutorial sessions, tutors talk with students about their writing; we ask questions that help writers see their texts through the audience’s eyes and encourage them to explore options for drafting and revising their texts. Students often seek help with thesis statements, organization, development, citation of sources, development of proofreading strategies, and other concerns.

Writing Center tutors work by appointment with students individually or in small groups (tutors facilitate these group sessions of 2-3 students).  To schedule appointments, students can come to L-8 or call (778-5632 or 778-5038). Limited online tutorial feedback is offered for students who are enrolled exclusively in online courses or for students who cannot come to the Writing Center during our business hours.   If you have any questions, contact Susie Williams (X5363; swilliams@sunybroome.edu).

Some of the best resources for APA:

The Basics of APA Style tutorial: http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htm

Purdue’s OWL: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ ; their APA workshop is at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/664/01/

BCC’s APA handout:  http://www.sunybroome.edu/library/guides/APA.pdf

We have a copy of the APA 6^th Edition in the Writing Center, as well as updated handouts.

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(Feb. 3) “Never end a sentence with a preposition.”

This “myth” causes trouble because many of the words that are prepositions–on, off, over, up, down, etc.–also fall into a class of words called “particle-words” or “particles.”  Particles are words that are actually part of the verb.  It is normal, but not necessary, for particles to appear at the ends of clauses or sentences.   Take, for example, the “off” in “Please turn off the lights,” and “Please turn the lights off.”  The “off” in these examples is not a preposition but a particle-word.  The particle in this example can be placed before or after “the lights.”  Another example, the “over” in “I’ll think it over,” is not so easily moved away from the end of the sentence.  A writer who thinks that words like up, down, over, on, off are always prepositions can go crazy trying to figure out how to avoid using them at the end of the sentence.  So the real myth here is not that you shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition, but that the words we think of as prepositions are always prepositions.