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The Writing Center is located at the north end of Thompson Memorial Library in Room 170 (part of the 24-hour space)
What Writing Center Consultants Can Offer
1. A real reader you must negotiate with
Writing is often an act of negotiation with readers. A Writing Center consultant can serve as a challenging, responsive reader––one whose questions, misunderstandings, and objections you must address in real time. This conversation can help you clarify your ideas and deepen your understanding of the project itself.
2. A human audience
Writing is ultimately written for readers. A Writing Center consultant can respond to your work as an actual member of the human audience you hope to reach, offering questions, reactions, and interpretations that emerge from a particular perspective and a genuine encounter with your writing.
3. Productive digression and serendipity
Thinking does not typically proceed in a straight line. Consultants can digress with you, follow unexpected associations, and pursue questions that may initially seem peripheral to the project. They can misunderstand you in ways that reveal new possibilities, make surprising connections, and help you discover ideas you did not know you were looking for. Such moments of serendipity can open unexpected avenues for thinking and writing, and sometimes lead to something genuinely new.
4. Help knowing when to stop
Effective writers need to know not only how to continue revising but also when a piece of work is complete. A consultant can help you focus your attention, establish priorities, and develop the judgment necessary to recognize when further work is productive, and when it is time to stop.
5. Accountability
Sometimes the most valuable form of assistance is simply working in the presence of another person. You can make an appointment to read, think, or write in the presence of a consultant, using the session to remain accountable to your own process. This kind of support helps you stay engaged in the work itself and experience reading and writing as processes of thinking rather than merely as steps toward the production of a finished product.
