Welcome back to our "Better Know a Department" series! A few posts ago, we interviewed professors from both English and Humanities. In this post, our tutor Basil interviewed a professor who has experience in both: Karen English. With 29 years of experience, Professor English has taught a myriad of classes: ENGL 1B, 2, 10, 90A & …
Continue reading Better Know a Department: English and Humanities
This year, we've hit some big milestones at the Writing Center -- 21,000+ views on our blog, over 700 views on our new Instagram account, and more than 3,300 appointments and drop-in sessions! Not to mention, we've opened up a new Library location, expanded our roster of tutors, and we'll soon have a new staff …
On Monday, we talked about the many joyful and -- sometimes -- agonizing steps of the writing process. But, after I hit "post," I realized that I had skipped a step: the moments of self-doubt and silencing our inner critics. Today, we're going to fix my oversight and remind ourselves that everyone doubts their work as …
Continue reading #TBT: Meme of the Week #23 – There is No Write Way
Normally we share our Meme of the Week posts on Friday afternoons, but with just a little over a month left of school, we're starting to head into crunch time and time becomes relative. This part of the year is when we're frantically finishing up all those midterm exams and papers and starting to think …
Continue reading Meme of the Week #31: The 13 Moments of the Writing Process
We've all read stories that made us say, "wait, where have I seen this before?" Too often, we see reoccurring tropes and clichés that can tend to muddy up fiction, making some seem predictable. We don't want that, especially when you're committed to putting in the necessary time and effort into making your work as …
On Saturday, April 7th, our tutors Ariel, Jenn, and Brooke spoke on a panel along with our Faculty Coordinator for Digital Initiatives (and The Write Attitude editor Maria Judnick) at the Northern California Writing Center Association's annual conference held this year at Santa Clara University. Their talk, "Movin' on Up: Assessing Challenges and Opportunities during Major …
On Friday, we had another productive Writing Center staff meeting. As we expand our community of tutors here at the Writing Center, we thought we'd get to know a little more about their composing process and ask what they listen to as they work: Do you listen to music when you write? If yes, what songs, …
Continue reading Ask the Specialists (April): What Music Do You Listen To When You Write?
Today is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In honor of Dr. King's legacy, we're looking back at our celebration of MLK Day this year (below). But perhaps no other tribute is more powerful than his own famous words: Today we celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s …
I taught a student many years ago who steadfastly insisted that he was never going to have to write again in his life. "I'm going to be an engineer," he told me. "My assistant will deal with all written communication. I don't need to pay attention to all this grammar stuff, it's unimportant." We just …
Continue reading 3 Reasons Why Grammar Matters IRL (in real life)
Ah, public transit -- not the first thing that comes to mind when you think "grammar," but taking a quick gaze at your local transit memo can reveal some unsightly errors. Hark, for example, at this posting at the Winchester station in Campbell, CA: In case you didn't catch it, here's the glaring error: "To …
Continue reading The Fix-It Police: Grammar Changes are Coming!
