Welcome back!

Welcome back for a new semester!  It’s been a fairly quiet year on the blog the Roosevelt University Writing Center, but we’ll try to keep the posts coming frequently and insightfully from here on out.  The Writing Center opened for student tutoring on Tuesday, September 8, but you knew that from the notice on our door.  Time for something more interesting!  You may have heard several times about why you should visit the Writing Center, but do you really believe it?  If you do, likely you have been here at least once, whether for extra credit for English 102, or for fine-tuning a speech to present at a symposium.  Or perhaps there was that impending final research paper gnawing at your peace of mind, or maybe you just wanted advice on a short story you’ve been writing for potential future use.  Whatever your purpose, we’re here to help.  Okay, that wasn’t so interesting, either.  It’s true, important, and holds the potential to great future fun and success, but nobody likes a pedagogue, which is not our intent in tutoring sessions or on the blog.  Nope.  You know what will be really interesting?  Your writing.

That’s write--(sorry, couldn’t resist)--your paper will be better if you come here.  This is a big claim to make, so let us append some fine print, which would be advantageous to read:

Even if you have the best paper in the world, which is subjectively quite possible, it will still be better for visiting the Writing Center.  We can’t guarantee you an A, it’s true.  We also are not infallible; we are not Gods, and we do our best not to pass judgment on papers.

What we can promise you is a dialogue.  You may totally disagree with us, and that’s fine.  But hopefully we won’t give you any outright statement of opinionated rubbish with which to disagree!  Regardless, this dialogue is like any other conversation; you will learn many things, whether because of a tutor’s advice or in spite of it.  In other words, you may gain keen, self-discovered inspiration based on a tutor’s comments--and wouldn’t that be just lovely?  On the other hand, our criticism (the nice kind) might lead to a strengthening conviction that you were right all along.  And that, my friends, is what the Writing Center is (somewhat) all about.

TO BE CONTINUED...