North Central College’s Writing Center has made some big strides over the last year, but one of the biggest and most notable changes is the center’s new evening location.
From 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, the Writing Center can be found in the largest study room on the main floor of Oesterle Library. In the past, it had nighttime hours at EDGE, North Central’s campus-wide open studying time and tutoring center in Kaufman Dining Hall. The Writing Center will now be based in Oesterle Library in the evenings.
“The goal and vision is that we can increase the amount of people we get in the evenings,” said Bob Tomaszewski (‘17), a tutor at the center.
This is just one of the Writing Center’s latest ideas to increase their visibility on campus and reach out to help more students with their writing. Tutors hosted a tutoring session during the first week of school to help first-year students with their writing assignments for their FYE class.
Tutors have also visited classes throughout the year explaining what the Writing Center is, what students can expect in a visit and answering any other questions. In previous terms, the center has also assigned tutors to specific classes to provide one-on-one help and held workshops on how to correctly use APA style in essays.
“The hope is that more freshman might be aware that the Writing Center is a resource that they can utilize,” said Tomaszewski. “It will definitely be beneficial.”
The center’s aim is to help all students at every stage of their writing, anywhere from the beginning stages when students come into the center with an idea and need help writing a thesis or if they need help citing sources correctly for an annotated bibliography. The center’s aim is not to proofread but to help students to improve their writing and editing skills so that they can become stronger writers throughout their time at North Central.
The Writing Center is also open from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Larrence Academic Center on the north end of campus. The director of the Writing Center is Jennifer Jackson and there are currently 13 student-tutors on staff.
