Oct. 15: Writing Center celebration
Event to introduce expanded center's newest location
11:31 a.m., Oct. 12, 2015--The University of Delaware Writing Center will officially mark its expansion into a second location with a celebration from 3:30-5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15, at the new center in Morris Library.
The Writing Center continues to operate in its longtime location in Memorial Hall, while the second center in the lower level of the library provides additional space and also incorporates multimedia elements into its traditional services focused on text.
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The new Multimedia Writing Center has been active all semester, offering one-on-one and small-group tutoring to help all University members develop their writing skills. The Oct. 15 event, which is open to the UD community, will feature refreshments, a visit by YoUDee and a festive way to learn about the center’s ability to help with video, audio, digital and standard written texts.
The new center is next to the library’s Student Multimedia Design Center, where more technology is available for use in preparing papers, reports and other multimedia projects.
“The writing center in Memorial Hall has been an extremely popular service over the past 10 years — in fact, one of the few complaints we’ve heard about the center is how hard it can be to get an appointment,” said Melissa Ianetta, center director and associate professor of English.
“The Multimedia Writing Center allows us not just to offer more hours to our student writers, but, with the luxury of more space, we’ve been able to expand our programming. In the library we have tutoring targeted to our graduate students, we are able to support multimedia projects, and we even can offer some walk-in tutoring.”
Students using the new center this week commented on the convenience of its hours and its location. Because they already spend time in the library, studying alone or meeting in small groups, the new center fits their schedules and their comfort zones, some said.
“And I like the atmosphere here. It’s very nice,” said environmental engineering doctoral student Solmaz Marzooghi, who met with a tutor to review the grammar in a paper she was writing.
Jenna Bradley, a master’s degree student in English who works as a tutor at the Multimedia Writing Center, described the students she’s assisted this semester as “a wonderful mix” ranging from freshmen taking their first English course at UD to graduate students preparing to publish. She said she sometimes brainstorms ideas with students who arrive with only a general topic in mind, while offering more specific guidance to students who bring in a paper they’ve been asked to revise and are seeking help in following their professor’s suggestions.
The new location also makes it clear to users that, although the Writing Center is operated by the College of Arts and Sciences, its services in Memorial Hall and in the library are open to anyone across campus who wants help with writing for any class.
“We’re incredibly grateful to the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office and the library leadership for the support that made this happen,” Ianetta said.
Article by Ann Manser
Photo by Evan Krape