Stop us if this sounds familiar.
You were top of your class in high school, but now that you’re in college,
it seems awfully hard to stay on top of anything.
Assignments are tougher to manage, and time seems
scarcer than it once was, somehow.
Perhaps you even find yourself questioning whether you can still perform
at the same academic level as before.
Well, you can -- it’s just a matter of using the help that’s available to
you.
And, luckily, there’s plenty.
Hi, I’m Bianca with the Purdue Writing Lab, and I’m here to introduce
to you some of the services we offer that can help you be the best
possible student, writer, and researcher you can be.
As we’ll soon see, research writing is a lot more than just
writing down your findings, which is why the Writing Lab can
be such a valuable resource throughout your career as an undergraduate
researcher.
But first: what exactly is the Writing Lab?
If you’ve ever needed to look up the rules for MLA style (and who hasn’t?) you may
already be familiar with our online resource, the Purdue OWL.
However, the Lab offers much more than just citation help.
In fact, we serve all members of the Purdue community, including domestic and international
students, grads and undergrads, and even faculty.
We offer tutorials face to face in Heavilon Hall and our three satellite locations, or
online via one of two methods.
We run workshops in our Lab space throughout the semester and also visit classes around
campus to provide writing support workshops.
In the 2017-18 academic year, we served over 2 thousand students with over 6 thousand appointments.
So, in short, the Lab is a place where any writer at any level and any stage of the writing
process can get help -- not just student writers struggling with a project.
That said, many undergraduate researchers visit us for help with topics like audience,
organization, synthesis, and genre.
For example, some researchers find it difficult to write in a way that those outside their
field can understand, even if those outsiders have a similar education level.
Similarly, other researchers find it hard to organize their thoughts, or how to integrate
source material into an effective literature review.
Some simply need help figuring out whether they’re expected to do a literature review
at all.
And for researchers who are writing in new genres like abstracts, proposals, or methodologies,
to name just a few, it can be difficult to know how to start!
Fortunately, the Writing Lab is here to help.
What can you expect if you decide to come in for a tutorial?
Each session is tailored to your individual needs, but, in general, tutors will start
by asking you questions about your work and where you’re at with your project.
That way, they can get an idea of how you both can work together in the session to address
your needs.
From there, tutors will usually try to look at global concerns first, like organization
or argument.
If any of the “big picture” elements of your document are causing trouble, it’s
important to address those first to make the most of your writing time.
If there’s time, tutors may spend some time on “little-picture” elements
of writing--stuff at the sentence level.
Depending on your progress, you may not have a draft of your end document yet.
That’s fine!
Tutors are trained to ask questions that can help you pull out and refine your ideas.
They can also help you analyze new and unfamiliar genres to help you plan your writing.
So, while visiting a tutor is a time commitment in the short term, regular visits are actually
a time saver in the long term.
This is one of the reasons why we often suggest writers visit a tutor in the Lab early and
often in their project work.
You can come as often as twice a week if you choose!
Working and writing regularly with the Lab has a number of benefits.
First, of course, it’ll keep you from sitting alone at your desk in the middle of the night
at a loss for words!
More importantly, a tutor can give you the opportunity to get feedback from a non-expert--but
still educated and interested--audience.
This helps you write more clearly in the long run.
Similarly, writing tends to benefit from being talked about aloud.
If you talk through your ideas with a tutor, you’ll usually gain a clearer sense of perspective
on your purpose, research questions, implications, and more.
Additionally, you can catch problems before they multiply, and you’ll have someone to
be accountable to.
Both of these things can be just as helpful as the actual advice a tutor can provide.
If you can’t come in for a session or if the schedule is all booked up,
you can always access the OWL -- again, you might already be familiar
with our famous citation resources.
However, did you know that we also host over a thousand resources on topics from
job documents to research proposals to rhetorical writing strategies?
If you have a question, you can often find the answer on
the OWL without even needing to leave your dorm.
So now you’re probably wondering how you can schedule an
appointment to meet with a tutor.
Luckily, it’s very easy, and the entire process happens online.
You can click the button or the link shown here
to access our online scheduling service.
The first time you schedule, you’ll have to sign in with your career account and then
fill out a form to create an account with the Writing Lab, but every time after that
you’ll just use your career account.
Once you’ve logged in (and created your account if necessary), you’ll see a schedule
that looks something like this.
The blue boxes are taken appointments, while the white ones are available. Click any white
box to make an appointment with the given tutor at that time.
Once you click a box, you can specify how long you want the
appointment to last (30 minutes or 1 hour) and whether you want the appointment to be
in-person, online, or eTutoring.
In-person means a one-on-one session with a tutor in Heavilon hall.
Online is a synchronous online appointment where you can chat live with a tutor via an instant
messenger app. eTutoring is an asynchronous online appointment--that means you won’t
have a live conversation with a tutor.
Instead, you’ll upload your paper and get it back with tutor’s comments later.
There are a number of fields to fill in on the appointment registration dialogue box,
but these two are some of the most important, especially if you want an online or eTutoring
appointment.
Being really specific here about your concerns helps your tutor conduct your session more
effectively.
If you just put “grammar,” for instance, it can be hard for the tutor to prepare the
sort of specific grammar help that will most help you, so please do give us some detail
here.
And that’s it!
I’m Bianca Batti with the Writing Lab, and we’ve covered how the Lab can help you as an undergraduate
researcher as well as how to schedule time with a tutor.
If you have any questions or would like further information, please visit the link on your
screen.
Thank you for your time!
We hope to see you at the Writing Lab soon.