Author: jmlong1

Hello all you Turkeys,

Thanksgiving is known for family festivities like gorging yourself on dry turkey and getting into heated political debates with distant relatives. But what it is not known for is the ample amount of time open for writing. There are many topics to write about, you can prepare a speech about climate change, you can reflect on your first semester, you can write thank you cards to all your lovely relatives, and most importantly you can leave positive comments on the writing center blog. Wishing you all a happy last week of classes!

P.S. With finals coming up, our hours will be changing, but we will still be around to help you with any final papers.

There are many ways to say goodbye but the variety doesn’t make the goodbye any easier. Here at the writing center, we would like to inform our readers that our fellow Tutor, Carson Bolash, has recently left his position as tutor. I know that some of you may be worried that his writing expertise will be put to waste, but do not fear, he is pursuing a English teaching degree and plans on continuing his pursuit of english excellence in a classroom of his own, where he hopes to find the next Hemingway or Poe. Carson’s contributions to the writing center have not gone unnoticed, his Tiktoks always put a smile on the faces of viewers and his advice always soothed the hearts of his students. And we as a whole would like to say thank you for all you have done for the Writing Center.

Hello all you Writing Center Blog Lovers. Don’t we all just love writing essays. Some turn out great others not so much, but if you’ve consistently fallen into the latter, then you’ve come to the right place. When it comes to writing a solid essay, the emphasis is on content, a well-rounded argument, and clear diction. However, for these dreams to become reality, a consistent, firm paragraph structure is necessary for readers to grasp what it is you are trying to say. A consistent paragraph structure also makes it easier for you, as a writer, to formulate your thoughts because you no longer must worry about what order you must structure your paragraphs in, giving you more time to formulate strong arguments.

The first step to writing a well-structured paragraph is to write a topic sentence. Yes, you heard me right, topic sentences are necessary outside of the introductory paragraph. The topic sentence gives your audience an idea of what to expect from the proceeding writing. Are you going to write about Julius Caesar’s love life or his conquests, the dark or light side of the moon, or igneous or sedimentary rocks? That’s for you to decide, but the introductory paragraph gives your audience an idea of what will come next.

After the topic sentence, you want to dedicate 3-4 sentences to bolstering your topic sentence. In these sentences, you are writing about what you know for certain, based on research or observation. Typically, each sentence ties back to the topic sentence, with the same or similar subjects being used for each sentence. Let’s say you were writing about the properties of igneous and sedimentary rocks. In the topic sentence you would establish which rock form you are writing about, then each sentence would begin with that rock. Or, these sentences can follow a linear progression, meaning that each sentence introduces a new subject which is the topic of the next sentence. For Julius Caesar’s love life, one paragraph may be dedicated to a particular lover and progress using the many traits that made them appealing to him.

The final sentence is what you’ve been leading it up to. It is when you can offer a grand explanation as to why Julius Caesar’s first lover was perfect for him or why igneous rocks are the prettiest rocks for a windowsill. This is when facts and information reach the tip of the dropper and a drop falls into the bucket full of other small drops, each one with their own reason for being in the bucket.

I hope you now feel more confident approaching your essays with a paragraph format at your disposal.

 

 

Hello everyone, welcome to another blog post written by yours truly, Jake Long. Today we will talking about the elusive perfect thesis statement because now is the time when we get our first speeches of the year. According to UNC Writing Center, a thesis statement is a roadmap for the paper that tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper. At times, it is appropriate to write your thesis statement after writing the body sections of your paper because you may not be ready to refine your main ideas until after exploring what you have to say. A thesis statement should give a reader a one sentence synopsis that they can refer to if questions arise as to how certain points relate to your topic. Let’s say you’re writing a paper on the effectiveness of the University bus system and your thesis reads, “The University bus system offers a beneficial service for students who need to get from one end of campus to the other in a short amount of time.” If later in the paper you wrote, the bus drivers are reckless and put students walking calmly to class at risk of getting hit in order to deliver their passengers on time, then a reader can reflect back on the goal of your paper and recognize your dedication to staying on theme is lacking. A better secondary topic would be a personal anecdote of a time when the bus system got you to class on time. This idea would be both clarify and support your thesis statement, and your reader will appreciate being prepped for what is to come in your writing.

This is your blog writer speaking, Jacob Long, in my second year as a writing tutor and second year as a blog writer. We have a new blog writer on board with us this year, Lauryn Everly, who has ample experience as both a writer and a blogger. In the past, she blogged the progress of her pumpkin patch back in 2018, a particularly good year for the harvest. She was aiming to grow the largest pumpkin in the tri-state area for the Tri-State Tractor and Trade Festival. She spent months caring for her puny pumpkins, only to see them stay at typical pumpkin size, about the mass of a full fishbowl. So, one day, she made the decision to add plant food to her fertilizer, an illegal move in the contest, and from that moment on her pumpkins grew to the size of boulders. Sadly, an investigation was launched into her pumpkin procedures, as their size far exceeded natural limits, and she was disqualified from the contest. Her embarrassment was palpable, but she has since learned that cheating, especially in an academic context, is unacceptable and now lives a life dedicated to teaching others the same thing.

This story is totally fictitious, Lauryn never grew pumpkins, no less participated in the fictional Tri-State Tractor and Trade Festival, but the moral of the story is important: cheaters never prosper. So let’s make a commitment to each other to practice absolute academic integrity this year, and if we can succeed in that venture you’ll hear the story of my own run in with the Tri-State Tractor and Trade Festival law.

In English classes across the board, the outline is considered a vital part of the writing process. Teachers preach that without an outline, a student has nothing, there is no other way for a paper to get off the ground than by outline. The tedious process of writing out, step by step, you will say in draft number one, which leads then to draft number two, hinders creative energy necessary to progress a paper beyond its beginning stages. The outline is a plague that convinces students that their ideas are held within black and white boxes, that their ideas once written remain constant, and that their ideas are valued for their presence on paper rather than on their creation.

What is done in an outline can be done in the mind. The step-by-step approach a student takes to writing a paper can be formulated without expulsion from the mind. The ideas have the right marinate in the head where connections from one concept, to the next, to one previously unrecognized, to an overarching concept that directs the student and writer to an outcome that they initially had no conception of. When writing is put on paper, it is seen as absolute, that it is the very definition of what the writer wanted from the begging. But if we look at writing as the pursuit of defining life, the pursuit of discovering how oneself fits into the world around them, how the world around them fits in them, and how the world itself fits into the worlds of everyone else, then there is little room for absolutes besides the answer to the one question that truly matters that has yet to be solved.

Less experienced writers gravitate towards the outline for its formulaic benefits. Writing is no easy task, so to be given a structure as advised by the “supreme writer” in the room, the teacher, puts students at ease. I’ll put this idea in the form of metaphor. When moving to a new town, one considers first and foremost where they can acquire life essentials such as food, water, gas, and so on and so forth. This task is very overwhelming and requires a few days’ worth of exploration and discovery and rediscovery. By rediscovery, I mean that there may be better deals offered in one supermarket as compared to the first supermarket the person bought groceries from, or the pharmacy first chosen is located next to a ruckus inducing canning factory and the second is neighbored by a park filled with potential friends.

There is more than meets the eye, and it is up to teachers to guide their students to a place where they see writing as a reflection of the self rather than a tedious pursuit of empty endeavor.

Hey all you Writing Center Blog enthusiasts, we’re coming back at you with yet another installment. Today we will be diving deep into the history of the Carson vs. Lauryn battle for MPT, Most Prolific Tutor. This semester started with a challenge for the ages, one of a magnitude yet unseen and yet repeated, between the Chiefs of the Carson and Lauryn factions, Carson and Lauryn respectively. Tensions were high during the first tutor meeting, with straws being drawn and glares being fired, luckily, the group remained cordial, and the moment passed without conflict, at least none that could be seen. But let me tell you, as someone who was in that room, at that table, the competitive hostility was as sharp as their two minds. What started out as a friendly bet, had turned into an event, that when concluded, deserves the erection of commemorative statues.

Based on current numbers, such a statue has Lauryn planting her flag into the leatherbound spine of literary stardom while Carson desperately clings to the fraying bookmark ribbon limply hanging off the edge of the highest shelf. The leaderboard shows Lauryn with a whopping twenty-two total tutor sessions. How she was able to pull off such a feat is unknown, her critics call foul play, but her followers, who will remain unnamed for fear of collateral damage, insist upon her tutoring prowess. On the short side of the ribbon is Carson, slipping slowly but surely out of the picture, balancing upon his meager ten sessions, grasping for a second semester surge to supersede Lauryn in her quest to become the first MPT. At this point in time, the winds of change of gone still, and Carson’s futile hope for a last second push is what storm chasers would call blowing out a candle during a tornado. And this tornado, in the form of Lauryn, is not one to be trifled with.

Hello all you Writing Center Blog readers, we are coming at you with another genre bending, time warping, phase shifting blog post. Today we’ll be looking into the not-so-distant future, Spring Break. Some call it the promised land others call it a week away; I personally call it a week to sit around and do nothing. This leads me to my next point, when there’s nothing to do, there’s something to write, so why don’t we go over a few ways to gain inspiration for that long-awaited short story or patchwork poem that has been nagging at the back of your mind. As cheesy as it is, go for a walk, there’s plenty to write about out there, surprising right. Who knows you may cross paths with another walker looking for inspiration and next thing you know you are swapping stories with your new best friend, or at least that’s how it seems, and then next thing you know you see a news report on a recent serial cereal thief on the loose and, low-and-behold, the forensic sketch even got their mole the shape of Fruit Loop right. What am I saying, the wildest thing you’ll see is a dog off the leash being tailed by their owner furious with their pup when they were the one who didn’t latch the leash properly. Even then, instant inspiration. Ask yourself, what does this remind me of, get fantastical, get realistic, get anecdotal, who cares it’s only words on a page.