Writing is a major component in a student’s day to day life. Whether or not we are fully aware that we are doing it, whether it be sending a text or composing an email, this is a critical and useful skill. Despite this skill being a common day to day task, it feels like the bane of every student’s existence. Who wants to be sat down and told that we have to write a fifteen page paper on Socrates, double spaced, due on a Friday night? There’s so much pressure on crafting the perfect argument to make sure your professor knows what you want to say. How do we word our arguments? How do we convince our professors we are as smart as we say we are? The craft of writing takes time. It takes dedication and practice. Writing is a tool that must be forged in fire, tested in flame over and over again. It doesn’t come overnight and to stress that our style must be perfect on the first draft is ludicrous. Expectations of being able to write quickly and efficiently is something that has been put on student’s shoulders ever since they could learn to hold a pencil. Confidence is doomed to drop with our own expectations that we put on our craft, and sadly over the years I have seen hatred for the typical writing assignment fester and boil over.

With this knowledge in hand, a branch of the ARC hopes to assist with the intimidation that comes with writing intensive assignments. The Writing Center, run by Professor Contarino and student tutors, hopes to set a safe place for students to reach out for help. Writing assistants will act as a guide for students who are unsure where to go next in their writing process, and will be there to help with content editing and draft structure. The student tutors at the Writing Center hope to make the journey less treacherous for students at every skill level, and as a community hope to spark a love for the craft. Professor Contarino and the students that work at the center are passionate about their craft and are more than eager to help with students struggling on their assignments. Do you not fully understand the Desert Fathers or are confused about what philosophy even is? The Writing Center provides an environment where students can learn how to properly word their arguments and how to fully express themselves in any written format. Rather than finishing a student’s paper, the writing assistants are trained to teach the student the material they are confused about and how to better improve their own technique. Unsure about thesis statements? Not sure how you should structure your research paper? With each session at the writing center, it is the goal of the tutors to ensure that clients take something away with them from their session. Whether that be how to better organize sentence structure or how to answer a prompt properly, the Writing Center values itself on teaching and honing in necessary skills. The Writing Center is located in the ARC in the student center and shares its office hours. Any questions that may pop up can be sent to the Writing Center and a social media outlet will be set up so that the tutors can advertise work hours or workshops that will happen throughout the semester.
The Writing Center is a safe and friendly environment for writers of every skill level and we are more than excited to see you pop in.