Category: Working in the Writing Center

Hobbies make writing fun and reading never hurts either

Beau Kilpatrick, Consultant

I have heard many horror stories about students who have trouble writing, starting a project, finishing a paper, Beau and even coming up with an idea to run with.

Through my own experiences, I have found that writing in my free time about something that truly interest me really helps. My passion is journalism. So, I use some of my free time to write stories about U of L sports. I will passionately watch a game then write a story about the strengths, weaknesses, and special plays of the game. This type of pleasure writing is totally stress free and helps when it comes to academic writing.

When the semester begins to get hectic with the overwhelming demands of our professors and longer assignments, it’s nice to know that writing these papers does not need to be a worrisome encounter. When you find that one thing in life that truly brings you joy and erases the stress of daily life, then write about it. You will be amazed at how much more prepared you are to tackle the mounting page counts when you have enjoyed the practice you have accomplished at home.

When I sit down to write one of my articles, I have my notes from the game beside me and I highlight the impressive plays, highest stats, and the ambiance of the team’s atmosphere. This is no different than using your own notes that you have gathered from sources in preparation for your academic paper. This is how I draw my outline for a draft. I then take the not-so-important notes and assign them under a highlighted term. There, the outline is finished and I can begin writing my prose between the gaps to connect my ideas.

Do you see how this same strategy can be used in academic writing?

This is why it is important to identify your passion and write about your experiences on the subject. Your writing, and the methods you take, can translate to better preparedness when it comes to your academic writing for a class. So, create a webpage and talk about the concerts you go to, discuss the latest fashion or music trends, create a bar review that explains who has the best drinks for cheap; use your imagination.

Writing should be fun. And it will be, but only if you find what is fun for you.

The next tip that I can offer is to read. Read a little bit of everything. The more you read, the better your writing will become because whether you realize it or not, your writing will acclimate itself to the level of reading you are at. Your vocabulary will improve, your ideas will become deeper, and your writing will flow out of your imagination much more fluidly.

Due to my thesis project as an undergrad, and the ridiculous amount of hours that I spent with the material, I have found certain tones in my writing that can only be attributed to the author of my research. I am not saying that is a bad thing but it does show how reading influences our writing.

So, in short, find that joyous passion of yours and thrive in that moment. Take notes and write about every adventure you embark upon; you will find it very rewarding. And learn to enjoy reading. You will be surprised at how it will strengthen your writing beyond belief.

Getting Started with Genre

Isaac Marvel, Consultant

Back in the 70’s Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier were working together on Marathon Man, which is a pretty intense, thriller type of film. Before the filming of a Isaac scene in which his character had apparently been kept awake for 72 hours, Hoffman decided that he too would stay up for three days, the idea being that this would help him get into the mind of his character—Hoffman was quite the method actor. Upon hearing this and witnessing Hoffman’s exhausted state, Olivier confronted him and asked “My dear boy… Have you tried acting?”

As Mary-Kate mentioned in “Writing as a Medium,” writing is not necessarily this art that requires this Hoffmanesque kind of inspiration. You needn’t spend days mentally fortifying yourself and getting into the head of your audience. Olivier’s implication of how acting operates is a much more effective example of the writing process—it’s a craft that one learns over time, with practice.

Therefore, this leads to the big question: “If writing is a craft, how can I improve my craftsmanship?” The first step is, essentially, just start writing! As Tim discussed in his blog post last week, creativity is a grind: “The best way of fighting through it is committing to fighting through it.” Wearing yourself out yearning for inspiration will likely only result in nothing being written, possibly serving even as a justification for procrastination. To go back to the example of Hoffman and Olivier, yes, Dustin Hoffman is a world-renowned actor, but so is Laurence Olivier, and he managed this without staying up for days at a time!

On the other hand, ensuring that your writing is effective is also vital—“just starting to write” may be the first step, but it isn’t the only step. After all, there’s no point in writing if you end up throwing away all of your drafts. Thus, one’s mentality is key: you need to be keeping your audience in mind as you write. Similarly, one trick that can make this process easier for you is learning the genre expected of you. Simply stated, expectations are going to vary wildly depending on what genre you’re working with—are you working on a research paper, a novel, or a tweet? Learn the conventions of that style and you’ll find yourself writing like a pro in no time.

So how, you might ask, can one go about learning said conventions? Honestly, my first step would usually be Google; you’ll find innumerable examples of what to do and what not to do. Possibly too many examples, in fact—it can be difficult to sort through and figure out which sources are credible and which should be disregarded. At that point, I would recommend coming to the University Writing Center, as our consultants have a wide range of backgrounds in different genres, and the odds are very, very good that we’ll be able to help. Alternatively, if you’re working on a school assignment, odds are that you can ask your professor about examples and about what’s expected of you. Regardless of what you choose, or what you’re working on, learning your genre is key to successful writing.

Creative by Choice: Persevering through Doubts and Droughts

Tim Phelps, Consultant

Perhaps nothing can be as daunting to a writer as an empty screen or a blank piece of Tim Phelps paper. It taunts you. It knows you can’t do it. It erases every budding idea you have and replaces it with indecision. It’s the ultimate bully–the one who manifests your fears with more efficiency than Pennywise the Dancing Clown. You’ve lost any ability to be rational at this point. You know you’ve faced this demon before and made it through, but you’ve convinced yourself you won’t be able to do it again. This will be the end of you. This will be the first time you’ve failed to turn in a paper, or—even worse—you’ll end up stringing together an essay of words so incoherent that everyone will finally find out you’re just an imposter.

That worst-case scenario never comes to fruition, of course, but it sure feels like it will sometimes. We find a way to get through it, and the world keeps turning.

I’ve come to believe that the roots of this struggle are based in creativity. More specifically, our doubt-ridden self-image about our creative talents. If we have convinced ourselves that we are not creative, then it makes sense that we’d have difficulty designing that eye-catcher the beginning of our paper deserves. It makes sense that we would look at polished or published writing and be unable to picture ourselves producing it—when the words feel so good, it’s more appropriate to call it a “creation” instead of a text. Writing like that must have been fashioned by someone who won the creative gene lottery, we might think. This creativity is not limited to fiction writing or poetry; its presence is just as ubiquitous in well-written academic work as well—we feel the sting of its absence when we can’t come up with a compelling thesis statement or find incontrovertible evidence in our research. Even pallet-wood projects on Pinterest and sugar-cookie decorating on Instagram haunt our creative confidence. How can I possibly create if I’m not creative?

It’s important to recognize that all writers have faced that empty-page paralysis at one point or another. It’s even more important to recognize, however, that practiced writers have found strategies for dealing with times like these. We’ve accepted it as a part of the process, and have found solutions that work for us. Some writers make a pointed effort to temporarily abandon the writing for a little while, refocusing their brains on something unrelated until they feel ready to give it another try. Some find solitude, others seek out company. If writers are constantly finding themselves in this struggle, they might ask if they are trying the same ineffective strategies over and over. If so, I encourage them to try doing something different and see how that works.

The longer I write, the more I’m comfortable that I’ve found an effective strategy for me. If I just start writing something, even if it’s horrible, it will eventually evolve into a final product. I’m not always satisfied with what I write, but these are first drafts we’re talking about here. They’re allowed to be horrible.

I will admit that it’s more complicated than just getting words on the page. Word production does not automatically create a well-written paper. Strategies may get you started, but what use is that if none of it has that unique, creative zing? It boils down to either accepting that certain lucky people are born with a creative gene, or accepting that creativity, like having any other skill, takes practice and hard work to develop. Subscribing to the former absolves the writer from any responsibility. But the latter makes the writer accountable for improving, which is a scary prospect. If creativity is indeed a product of practice and effort, then that includes a heavy implication of failure. For writers, the fear of failure is often what keeps the page blank to begin with.

However, I’m convinced it is a struggle worth fighting for. Once writers accept that it will take work, they can focus on combining strategies with perseverance. It’s the confidence (whether real or faked) that the words will eventually come to you, and a willingness to embrace the discomfort of labor. It takes patience, comfort with failure, and a commitment to pushing through the block. It’s not a problem limited to non-professional writers. In his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King compares writing not to “creative fluttering,” but to blue-collar labor such as plumbing and driving long-haul trucks (153). (I know that this is my second King reference of the post; I offer no apologies.) Common metaphors we use to describe this kind of toil are just as pitiless as you might expect: “putting your nose to the grindstone” and going “off to the grind.” Both examples express this undertaking as a prolonged and drudging effort. Even video gamers, when faced with challenging goals that require lots of time, effort, and perseverance, call the act “grinding.” The origin of using “grind” in these metaphors is a reflection of two inventions of production: a vertical, spinning stone for knife sharpening, and the giant stone wheels used to pulverize grain into flour in watermills. These examples represent the unforgiving nature of this approach, and in all fairness, sometimes the grind is tedious and exhausting. But the metaphors also represent a connection between writing and the efforts of other disciplines. These commonalities highlight a stark truth: those who find success usually have to work very hard for it. Creativity therefore, and its subsequent creation, are choices.

This all means that, when faced with a writing block, the best way of fighting through it is committing to fighting through it. The writing that looks easy for other people is less likely a product of a lucky birth and more likely the result of a practiced skill. That practice means that once you have a merely acceptable idea of what to write, you keep grinding until you create something you’re proud of. It won’t come easy. It will be frustrating. Failure is a real possibility. But just like anything that is challenging, you will be rewarded when you work for it.

Works cited:

King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Hodder, 2012.

Good Enough is a Shot in the Dark or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Revision.

Christopher Stuck, Assistant Director of the Virtual Writing Center

Every once in a while, I stumble upon an article Christopher Stuck about writing that really sparks with my own experience and struggles in getting words on the page and then turning them into something worthwhile. A lot of my writing time is spent worrying about that first reader and how they will react. As such, I struggle with getting the first draft out, caught up in making it finished on the first go. From teaching here at the University of Louisville and at the University of South Carolina before that, plus working with writers in the University Writing Center, I know I’m not alone in this thought process.

We know it’s bad for us to get into the editing while we’re writing. We know nothing is finished on the first try. But we don’t want to show that we don’t quite have it down right to start, either because we don’t want to be embarrassed or because we don’t want to edit. Good enough isn’t good enough, but we want it to be.

Last week, the University Writing Center posted a link to “The Book He Wasn’t Supposed to Write,” an article published in The Atlantic, to our Facebook page and Twitter feed. Written by author and journalist Thomas E. Ricks, the article details his hidden struggles in writing his latest book and the dismay he felt in the editing process.

He worked on the book for three years and when he finally submitted it to his editor, his editor hated it. Ricks says “Partly, I was crushed. But even more, I was puzzled. How could I have been so off in my perception of my manuscript?” Ricks’s book wasn’t a true first draft, but this was the first time he had sent it out for reading. He was sure of the way he had written the manuscript, but “What [Ricks] had sent [his editor] was exactly the book he had told [Ricks] not to write.” Ricks rethought and revised the book heavily, transforming what he already had, the work he had already done, and added a lot of things he had initially discarded. Through revision, it fell into place, and he ended up with a much better book, even in his own opinion.

Ricks concludes his article, “Most art has a public face—music is played, paintings are displayed, plays are enacted, movies are filmed and often watched by groups. Books tend to be more private, from one person’s act of writing to another’s act of reading. Most mysterious of all is the hidden middle stage, the offstage act of editing. Yet sometimes it can make all the difference.” For me, this is much like the work we do here, as students and academics. Even with an audience in mind, whether it’s an editor, a professor, or a specific group of people out there in the world, there feels like mystery in the writing process. No matter how many times we go through it, no matter how practiced and sure of ourselves we get, the private acts of writing and revising tend to stay private.

Even the few of us who truly love to write fret and worry and make writing hard for ourselves. Rethinking and revising your work after getting the raw materials down on the page in a rough or first draft can counteract some of the mystery, making the whole process easier. Be willing to cut, scrap, rethink, reshape, rearrange, and rewrite. It may seem like more writing, but it’s easier writing.

Find that trusted friend or trusted professor and have them help you by reading and commenting on your work (most of us are willing) or come to the University Writing Center and work on it with us (all of us are willing). But most of all, trust yourself to get words on the page and shape it up later. Learn to stop worrying and love the revision.

Behind the Scenes at the Virtual Writing Center

Cassie Book, Associate Director

DSCN3703

As the University Writing Center’s (UWC) Associate Director, I’m always interested in ways to move from practice-based questions to research and practical improvements. The goal of a recent research project was to improve the overall Virtual Writing Center experience for both writers and consultants. During my day-to-day experience in the UWC, I noticed that some writers (the students, faculty, and staff who use our services) had difficulty locating Virtual Writing Center appointments on our online schedule. The “Virtual Writing Center” broadly encompass our website and synchronous (live chat) and asynchronous (written feedback) online tutoring. We offer both forms of Virtual appointments to Distance Education students and those who cannot visit for a face-to-face appointment. In addition to noting that some writers couldn’t find the Virtual Writing Center appointments on our online schedule, other writers accidentally scheduled a live online chat session when they really wanted asynchronous written feedback on their draft. These were not trivial issues. If not corrected, they result in a writer not getting the help they wanted or losing valuable appointment time.

I developed a research project based on “user-experience” (UX) methodologies that would allow me to investigate where the breakdown in usability and/or communication occurred. The most important reason why it is important for writers to be able to successfully use the technology writing centers employ is accessibility. For instance, in physical writing center spaces, stairs leading to an entrance could be a barrier for a writer using a wheelchair or crutches. In online spaces, the clunky setup of online scheduling systems could create barriers to accessing writing centers. Understanding how writers use our UWC’s online scheduling system would help us redesign elements of the system to make it as welcoming and usable as possible for all potential users.

To understand how our website and schedule confused writers, I recruited six UofL students who have never used the Virtual Writing Center and conducted usability tests and interviews. A “usability test” is not really a “test;” it simply provides scenarios for study participants to undertake (such as, “schedule an appointment in the Writing Center; you want the kind of appointment where you do not physically have to go to the Writing Center”) while a researcher (me) observes them. My follow-up interviews asked the students to discuss their perceptions of the scheduling process and the website. Finally, also I observed three Virtual Writing Center consultants as they worked and conducted a focus group about their use and perceptions of the technology. I collected and analyzed the data on the usability tests, interviews, observations, and focus group to create a picture of what was happening “behind the scenes” of the Virtual Writing Center. For example, to analyze the usability test data and interviews, I simply looked for patterns. One pattern I noticed was that most participants did not stop to read the instructions on our website before attempting to schedule an appointment. My data overall showed me how consultants and writers used the technology, which was valuable for me as an administrator wanting to improve their online experiences.

After I analyzed the data, I developed a list of recommendations for changes to the website and scheduling system based on my findings. We’ve already put in place several improvements! These include: redesigning the Appointments webpage using icons and new resources, such as a new Frequently Asked Questions about the Virtual Writing Center. We also added disclaimers and visual clues on the Appointment page and online schedule to grab writers’ attention to let them know where to find the Virtual Writing Center schedule (see below). We changed the names of the Virtual appointment types to more logically descriptive names. Now the choice between “Written Feedback” and “Live Video Chat” in the Virtual Writing Center is, we hope, clearer. We also revised some of the training for our Virtual Writing Center consultants to ease their anxieties about using technology to communicate about writing. If our consultants aren’t 100% comfortable with it, we can’t expect the writers to be.

announcement uwc wconline — The revised announcement on our Ekstrom Library location schedule, which uses visuals to capture users’ attention.

I would like to make two points to conclude. First, I believe that integrating user-experience perspectives into writing center practices benefits both writing center administrators, to make more informed design decisions, and writers, to more easily access centers. Writing centers (alongside other entities in education) can get easily excited about a new innovation or tool, but we need to also think critically about the impact on students, especially in terms of accessibility. Writing center theory already values writer-centered practices and user-experience studies build on that foundation. Second, a major tenant of user-experience research is that it should be ongoing, so our work is not done! We will continue to collect data on how our writers and consultants use our technology and use those insights to make adjustments to practice.

This research was funded by the Christine Cozzens Research Grant from the Southeastern Writing Center Association and will likely appear in more detail in a future publication.

Time, Talk, and Attention to the Individual Writer: How Learning Happens in the Writing Center

Bronwyn T. Williams, Director

Every year I spend much of my August telling people about the University Writing Center. I go to a number of departmental and college orientations and resource fairs so I can offer an overview of our services. I tell people that we work with any member of the UofL community on any kind of writing at any point in the writing process. I talk about dscn2185 our various writing groups, writing events, and the workshops and retreats we offer. And I describe, briefly, how we don’t edit papers for people, but work with them to discuss the strengths and weakness of a draft and come up with strategies for revision that will make the writer stronger yet.

Yet, I usually have only about 15 minutes to talk, at best, at these events, so I don’t get to explain much beyond that. There are any number of things I’d like to be able to say, but with the start of the new academic year, I want to take a moment to focus specifically on a few values and approaches that we have in the University Writing Center that both set us apart from other parts of the University and create distinctive learning experiences that keep people coming back to make appointments with us. These are all ideas we spent the day talking about at our start-of-the-year orientation this past Thursday.

People, Not Just Pages: We work with writers, not just on drafts. We’re not an editing service that marks up a draft with “corrections.” Instead, our focus is working with a writer to provide that person with suggestions and strategies that help the writer make the draft in question stronger, but also offer the writer ways to write more effectively in the future. We remember that we’re responding to a person, not just a set of pages. Such an approach also means that we work in dialogue with writers, listening to their concerns, offering suggestions, and emphasizing that the best learning comes from such cooperative and collaborative approaches.

Location, Location, Location: We can start with writers where they are. In a class full of students instructors have to make assumptions about what the students know and start from there. Being able to work with writers individually means we can find out what they know, what they want to learn, and adapt our responses accordingly. The reality is that no writer is always a strong or weak writer. Competence and confidence depend on the writer’s familiarity with the genre in question, whether you’re a first-year student or working on a doctoral dissertation. We tailor our teaching to the individual and the context.

Time Is On Our Side: Unlike conventional courses, we’re not bound by the limits of a 14-week semester. Our timeline for learning is up to the individual writer. Some writers make multiple appointments with us during a given writing project (writers can make up to three appointments per week). Some make regular, standing appointments each week was they work on a longer piece, like a dissertation or book. Others we see from time to time during their years at UofL. The point is, we can keep working with a writer over the course of college career and our approaches to teaching and learning can take the long view and not be truncated by the semester schedule. Such an approach, again, means we can focus on teaching the individual, not just fulfilling a course syllabus.

Learning, Not Grading: When we sit down with a writer, our focus in on helping that person write more effectively, not coming up with an evaluation of that writer that

WC staff 17 — University Writing Center Staff, 2017-18

reduces it to a number or single letter. Taking this approach allows writers to be more honest about their struggles and more willing to explore a variety of approaches knowing that an approach that doesn’t work won’t result in a failing grade, but just having to try again. In the Writing Center the response of the reader is what matters, and in that way reflects more closely the reality of writing in daily, non-academic contexts. What’s more, research on motivation – and research on grading – overwhelming demonstrates that instrumental reward systems such as grades diminish both internal motivations and learning. We offer a learning environment that emphasizes individual learning, not group assessment, and that makes the learning and motivation that much stronger.

Writing Matters in the World: We’re committed to cultivating and sustaining a culture of writing on campus and in the community. Our writing groups (Graduate, Creative Writing, LGBTQ), our community work and workshops, and our events (Banned Books Week, Celebration of Student Writing, International Mother Language Day, among others) are all done with the goals of supporting the writing that people do, but also reminding people of the important work that writing does in their lives and in the world. Toward that end, we also value and emphasize the role of writing and literacy in advancing and advocating for equality and social justice.

Regardless of your political views, it’s hard to argue with the idea that these feel like tumultuous times. But, as my father once said, “Education is an optimist’s racket,” which means I can’t look at the new faces on campus and not feel hopeful. We are excited to open our doors at the University Writing Center to begin another academic year and remain a positive force for UofL writers and their writing.

A Year of Successes, In and Out of the University Writing Center

Bronwyn T. Williams, Director

Any time you move you have dreams about how your life may be in a new space. Yet you never know what the reality will look like, so you go forward with your fingers crossed and hope for the best. Looking back on our first full year in our new space on the first floor of Ekstrom Library, it’s gratifying to see how many of our hopes have been realized and how excited we are to continue this work in the year ahead. We had hoped that the new, larger, space for the University Writing Center would both make us more visible and offer us more room in which to hold consultations, events, and other activities that would foster and celebrate a culture of writing on campus. All of that has happened, and more.

In Fall 2016, we set a record for the number of one-on-one consultations in a single semester (and we may be headed for a record for spring semester as well). Thousands of writers at UofL come to see us, and come back again, because they feel they’re engaging in productive conversations about

20160818_130303 — The 2016-17 University Writing Center Staff

writing that help them grow as writers. The writers who come to the University Writing Center represent every college in the university and include undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and staff. It takes an extraordinary staff to work with so many different writers from different disciplines who bring distinctive and individual concerns about writing to their appointments. So, while it’s great to have a shiny new space, it is our talented and dedicated writing consultants and the inspired teaching they do, day after day, that are at the heart of our work.

One of our other goals for our new space was to be able to hold writing-related events and sponsor writing groups, and that is another of our dreams that we have been able to realize. We’ve held a range of events, from a Halloween Creative Writing Open Mic night, to celebrating the National Day on Writing and International Mother

mother-lang-day-4 — Celebrating International Mother Language Day

Language Day , to doing our part to participate in events such as Banned Books Week, Kick Back in the Stacks, and the Celebration of Student Writing.

We also want the University Writing Center to be a place where people can come to do their writing, so in the past year we have expanded our sponsorship of writing groups. In addition to continuing our Graduate Student Writing group and LGBTQ Writing Group, we added a very successful Creative Writing Group this year. We will be continuing all of this groups, so be sure to check our our website for information and dates.

It’s also worth noting that not all of our work takes place inside the University Writing Center space. In the last year we have conducted writing workshops across both UofL campuses that have served more than 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students. If you would like to request a workshop, you can contact us through our website or by email. We also collaborated with the Digital Media Suite on workshops to support faculty teaching. In the digital world, our social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram continued to grow. And this blog, with its combination of posts about writing and writing pedagogy and our ongoing How I Write series, continues to increase in popularity, with more than 12,000 hits this year.

We also have expanded our community literacy work this year. In addition to holding regular writing workshops and consultations at Family Scholar House, we have begun a partnership with the Western Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library. At the Western Branch Library we’ll be working with young people, both through literacy tutoring as well as organizing a variety of writing-focused activities. You can read more about these partnerships in this blog post.

It is important that credit goes to the fantastic administrative staff who are the brains and heart of the University Writing Center and support UofL writers in so many ways, both large and small. Associate Director Cassandra Book, Assistant directors, Layne Gordon, Amy Nichols, Jessica Newman, and Chris Scheidler handle every opportunity or challenge with creativity and good humor. Robin Blackett runs the front desk, with the help of our student workers Brianna McIntyre and Bailey O’Leary, with warmth and professionalism.

Whatever we do, we are committed to always putting writers and their writing first. We work to make the University Writing Center an inclusive and safe space where all writers can explore their ideas. We want writers to know that we will respond respectfully and thoughtfully to their work, and that we can learn from them as they learn from us. Such a reciprocal and collaborative relationship is essential to our the work we do. So I want to end by thanking the writers who have trusted us with their writing and their ideas this year.

We will be open during the summer, starting May 8, from 9-4 every weekday. Meanwhile, take a look at our website and we hope to see you soon.

Writing Center Staff Achievements

The University Writing Center is also an active site of scholarship about the teaching of writing. Staff from the Writing Center were engaged in a number of scholarly projects during the past year in rhetoric and composition, literature, and creative writing.

Cassandra Book, Associate Director of the University Writing Center, presented at the International Writing Center Association Conference, Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, and International Writing Center Association Collaborative at the Conference on College Composition and Communication. She was also awarded a the Christine Cozzens Research Grant by The Southeastern Writing Center Association for the project “Online Writing Tutoring: Usability, Access, and Participation.” She also published a book review in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication of Tracy Bridgeford and Kirk St. Amant’s Academic-Industry Relationships and Partnerships: Perspectives for Technical Communicators and co-authored a post on the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition Blog on “Teaching and Researching Feminist Rhetorics: Digital Curation as Collaborative Archival Method.”

Layne Gordon, Assistant Director for the Writing Center, presented at Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition and the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference and co-authored an article titled “On Multimodal Composing.” in Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy.

Jessica Newman, Assistant Director for Graduate Student Writing, presented at the International Writing Center Association Conference, Cultural Rhetorics Conference, and Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Amy Nichols, Assistant Director for the Writing Center, presented at the Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition and co-authored a policy brief titled, “Charter Schools Not Just for K12 Advocacy,” in Policy Analysis Initiative. She also published the poems “For my men” in Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel and “Cave Run Lake” and “Passing Through” in Appalachian Heritage.

Chris Scheidler, Assistant Director for the Virtual Writing Center, presented at the College Conference on Composition and Communication and participated in the Louisville “Hack The Ville” project focused on providing resources to help the transition for refugee and immigrant populations.

Kevin Bailey co-edited the Miracle Monocle literary magazine and was awarded a Department of English Creative Writing Scholarship. He will be the Assistant Director of the Creative Writing program next year.

Kelly Carty will be the Morton Endowed Chair Research Assistant next year and will present at the South Central Modern Language Association Conference.

Emily Cousins presented at the Northeastern Modern Language Association Conference and was awarded U.S. Dept. of State’s Critical Language Scholarship to learn Bengali this summer.

Katie Kohls presented at the College English Association of Ohio Conference.

Carrie Mason was accepted to present at the national Community Writing Conference in October.

Michael Phillips presented at the Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900 and the Kentucky Philological Association Conference. He is also the Henry James Review Research Assistant for next year.

Melissa Rothman completed her MA degree and defended her thesis, “Ironic Deference-An Inquiry into the Nineteenth Century Feminist Rhetoric of Kesiah Shelton”

Ashleigh Scarpinato gave readings of her poetry in the Flying Out Loud and River City Review creative writing series in Louisville.

Ashley Taylor founded the River City Revue Reading Series and read at the Flying Out Loud reading series. She also co-edited the Miracle Monocle literary magazine and was awarded a Department of English Creative Writing Scholarship. Her poems will be published in the following journals: “Shipwreck,” The Merrimack Review; “Shipwreck,” Lavender Review; “A clean void paints a silhouette where your dresser was,” The Stillwater Review; and “Botanical garden duplex” & “The Seamstress,” FIVE:2:ONE.

Finally, along with former University Writing Center staff members, Adam Robinson, Tika Lamsal, and Ashly Bender Smith, I co-authored an article “`Find Something You Know You Can Believe In’: The Effect of Dissertation Retreats on Graduate Students’ Identities as Writers” for the edited collection Re/Writing the Center: Pedagogies, Practices, Partnerships to Support Graduate Students in the Writing Center, to be published this summer. Also my forthcoming book, Literacy Practices and Perceptions of Agency: Composing Identities, draws in part from research conducted over the years at the University Writing Center.

The Writing Center: Every Step of the Way

Kevin Bailey, Consultant

The spring semester is drawing to a close. Tensions are high, schedules are full, and it seems like there’s no way on earth that all the work that needs to get done will ever get done (at least not on time). Of course, it will get done, though; it always gets done. And when it does get done, there’s a feeling of exhaustion, followed by a moment of relief, and then, within a matter of days, an overwhelming sense of – “What now?”

And the answer to that question is different for all of us. Perhaps you’re finishing your first year of college and making plans to take more difficult coursework next semester. Or perhaps you’re jumping straight into summer classes. Maybe this is your final semester before graduation and you’re preparing to enter the job market. Or maybe you (like me) are gearing up to teach for the first time in the fall. These are all big and potentially scary changes.

It can be daunting to consider all the work that lies ahead. No matter what stage of your academic career (or life) you’re in, new obstacles are always going to stand in your way and new responsibilities are inevitably going to take up your time. And I can’t in good conscience recommend you put these things out of your mind. It’s important to plan. It’s important to look ahead and approach your “What now?” with confidence.

The point I’m making, I think, is that even though your workload may increase and you’ll take on larger projects, you will always be able to adapt to new challenges, especially when resources like the Writing Center are around to help you along the way. One of the many mantras I’ve memorized from my time tutoring over the past year has been: “We’re here to help with any writing project at every stage of the writing process.” This phrase is usually applied to the standard college essay, and by it we tutors often mean we can help regardless of how much of said essay has been written. We help to brainstorm topics for papers that have not yet been started as readily as we discuss strategies for revision on papers that are mostly finished. But this same mantra can be slightly repurposed to say “We’re here to help with every step of your writing career,” and it would remain equally true to the Writing Center’s purpose.

The Writing Center can help in a big way with every one of those “What now?” scenarios I mentioned earlier. If you have a summer project you want to work on, the Writing Center is open for consultations during the summer. If you’re entering the workforce or applying for positions, you can set up an appointment to construct or review your CV, resume, or personal statements. If you’re teaching next semester, you can bring in and receive feedback on your syllabi and lesson plans (something I’m already making plans to do).

No matter what’s next for you, you’ll be writing. And no matter what you’re writing, the Writing Center can help.

Evaluating Sources in the Age of “Fake News”

Melissa Rothman, Consultant

Alternative facts, fake news, disinformation, propaganda…despite their recent step into the spotlight, none of these concepts are by any means new phenomena. Nonetheless, the recent stir in the media has even caused the Oxford Dictionary to name “Post-truth” the word of the year for 2016. Many have pointed to the ever-increasing availability of information in our digital age as the cause of our current skepticism, but publicity stunts and sensationalized media date back to the early stages of mass publication. In 1809, Washington Irving is perhaps one of the earliest cases for knowingly fabricating “fake news,” placing a fake missing person’s advertisement in several local newspapers for a Mr. Diedrich Knickerbocker just prior to releasing his first work published under this pseudonym. Tabloids such as “Star” and the “National Enquirer” have stared back at us from the supermarket lines our whole lives reminding us to question the validity of printed news. Even in academia, the notorious “Sokal Hoax” serves as a cautionary tale illustrating the value of close reading. However, despite the apparent prevalence of misinformation in our world, we should not slide into the nihilistic view that truth is relative. In fact, this recent heightened interest in the validity and soundness of sources has fostered a necessary awareness of misinformation. Likewise, there are several strategies available for evaluating sources.

Melissa Rothman pic 4-10

[CC Image courtesy of The Public Domain Review on Flickr]

To begin with, there are several research guides available on the web. Ekstrom Library even has a list of strategies for evaluating sources here. It includes questions of context, authorship, and credibility that are useful for evaluating any type of source, but is specifically geared toward academic works. However, sometimes we want to use data from outside scholarly databases. There are tons of tips online for building digital literacy, but I’ll break down these lists into the cliff notes version that we college students know and love.

Here are some strategies:

Consider the Source. Questioning an author’s motivation should be second nature to every college student by the time they graduate. There is no such thing as an agenda free text. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For instance, this blog post was written with two main goals: 1. To please my wonderful boss (*note the potential motivation of sucking up with my adjective choice). 2. To supply you guys with a handy-dandy tool for evaluating sources. But always be aware that some agendas are a bit more nefarious than others, particularly when you get into the realm of politics.
Look for Evidence. This could be cited explicitly in the article, provided at the bottom of the page, or embedded in hyperlinks. But if the author is stating something as common knowledge, that…well…isn’t common knowledge, approach with caution.
Fact check, Fact check, Fact check. Below I’ve listed some links to some great sites for this, but while they certainly do try, they can’t cover every piece of information available on the web. Luckily, if you have a question, our Reference Assistance and Instruction department is fantastic asset for questions like these.
Pay Attention to Images: By now, pretty much everyone should be aware of the magical abilities of Photoshop. However, did you know that Google has a reverse image search that can help trace where else an image has appeared online? Find the original source can perhaps help identify the reliability of the image. Likewise be aware of charts and graphs. They can also be appropriated to distort truth…even when using real data.
Check the URL. URLs ending in .edu and .gov are inherently trustworthy, but still continue to consider the source to identify possible partisan biases. During my undergrad I was told that .org was more trustworthy than .com. However, while there was a time when getting a .org meant you ran an actual organization, today anyone can get this type of domain. Also, beware of URLs designed to intentionally mislead you by using other organizations’ names. For example, ABC.com.co, is a fake news site mimicking ABC.com.
Be Aware of Your Own Biases: Part of providing a convincing argument is showing that you’ve thoroughly considered all opposing viewpoints. The only way to do this is to read AND consider opinions from other people’s perspectives. They may not change your point of view at all, but in considering them you are enabled to form a stronger argument in support of your viewpoint.

Fact-Checking Sites:

Self Care and the University Student

Brooke Parker, Consultant

The ins and outs of the university can be stressful and anxiety inducing for many of us, particularly at this point in the semester. While Spring Break’s brief moment of relaxation has left us, our final exams and seminar papers are fast approaching. It’s easy to forget that engaging in self care is just as important as the writing and studying you’re doing.

As someone with a mental disability, self care is a really familiar and helpful concept to me, but this is certainly something every student can benefit from. The term “self care” refers to anything you yourself can do for your own physical or mental health. And while both physical and mental health are tied to each other, I’d like to emphasize self care’s benefits for emotional and mental well being in the university.

So, what does self care look like for a student? According to Psych Central, self care is individual and looks different for everyone. But they do provide some helpful suggestions:

Think about what activities make you feel relaxed and write them down. For example, walking my dog, painting, and watching Rick and Morty with friends are all activities that make me feel calm and relaxed. So, I try to engage in them regularly.
Schedule self-care moments on your calendar. Or, set an alarm on your phone to take breaks from writing or studying. I like to take frequent breaks when writing to decompress and give my mind some respite. In fact, I took a break will writing this post to take a hot bath, which is another helpful de-stressing tool.
Get your self care in when you can. While some of us may be able to lock down a self care schedule on the calendar (I have a really hard time doing this), the rest of us can sneak in self care when a moment frees up. My colleagues and I often take turns laying on the couch in our consultant room between sessions—catching naps or just moments to close our eyes when we can.
Take care of your physical health as well. This is something I’ve had quite a hard time doing this academic year. I often feel like I don’t have the time to go for a run or attend an hour long yoga session. However, even walking your dog or doing light stretching can be acts of physical self care that can also help you destress.
Know that its ok to say no. I grew up with a mother who never said “no” to her clients, and I saw how quickly she burnt out during the week because of this. Making sure not to overextend yourself is important. You’ve got enough on your plate as a student—don’t feel bad if you want to or have to say no to something.
Keep checking in with yourself. I keep a bullet journal to track my state of mind each day. If my anxiety is high or I experience a dissociation, I will write about it. This allows me to find trends in my stressors so that I can recognize and avoid/navigate them in the future. I’ve found this to be one of the most helpful aspects of my own self care.

While this is in no way a comprehensive list of ways to take care of your self during these last stretches of the semester, I hope these examples provide a starting point from which you can construct your own, unique approach to self care.

I’d like to add to this list taking advantage of counseling services. While self care is certainly beneficial to everyone, some students (including myself) have mental disabilities for which the structure of the university isn’t always as understanding. Counseling services can be a space in which we find that understanding. Further, coming to the Writing Center when you’re overwhelmed with an assignment or just don’t know where to begin can help relieve the stress you are feeling. Our consultants know that, for many, writing can be a stressful activity, but we are here to provide you with the tools to help you confidently (and hopefully less stressfully) navigate your assignments.