Category: About Us

Hello, Marauders! With this busy time of the semester, we’d like to let you know about our new hours. We will be open Monday through Thursday from 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM and Friday from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Other than closing an hour earlier than before, everything is the same!

• • We offer in-person, online, and Zoom tutoring sessions. Schedule an appointment with us through Starfish (see How to Schedule an Appointment on Starfish for instructions) or feel free to drop in! Our location is McNairy Library Room 106.
  • Contact us by emailing writing.center@millersville.edu or calling (717) 871-7389.

A quick reminder on our different types of appointments: 

• • IN PERSON: This appointment is a face-to-face interaction between you and a tutor at the Writing Center, and is the most beneficial for both parties. Meeting in person allows us (the tutors) to do a better job of getting to know you, your writing style, and your writing goals and needs. This appointment is preferred if you have a lot of questions, if you have a rough draft that might need some work, or if it’s a longer paper. 
  • ZOOM: This appointment is a face-to-face interaction between you and a tutor through a screen. This is a great option for when you can’t come to the Writing Center but still want that hands-on, interactive learning experience. We will ask you to share your screen so we can take a look. Also, having your video turned on is preferred (so we can have that personal interaction) but NOT required! This appointment is preferred for the same reasons as the in-person appointment. However, since our appointments only run for about 30 minutes, you may need to schedule again if it’s a longer paper. 
  • ONLINE: This appointment requires zero face-to-face interaction. This is best if you have a shorter paper. Once you schedule the appointment through Starfish, you can email your paper to Writing.Center@millersville.edu with the name of the tutor that you made the appointment with. Make sure that your paper is attached as a Word document! Do not send a link, as most times it is inaccessible! Please make sure to specify what you need help with as well, so that we have a focus for the appointment. During an online session, we look over your paper and make comments and suggestions throughout the paper. We will then email it back to you. 

I hope this is helpful to you, and as always, happy writing!

Hello, Marauders! As you know, the Writing Center is here to help you with all of your writing needs, so I decided to ask around for some helpful tips and tricks—and who better to ask than our very own tutors? Sometimes we also struggle with writing. We understand it can be hard to write introductions, come up with thesis statements, figure out how to organize the paper, and everything else in between. So what are some strategies to help with these common problems? Here’s what our tutors have to say about it: 

Eden, English Writing Studies major/Anthropology minor: Getting started is the hardest part. If you can’t get started, start in the middle. Start with your body paragraphs or your supporting evidence. You don’t always have to start with your introduction or thesis. 

Anna, Secondary English Education major/Theatre minor: When you’re working on something, the most important part is writing the first draft. Because once it’s concrete, not just something in your head, you can work on improving and revising, and anything else to make it better.   

Lauryn, Secondary English Education major: You don’t have to write your paper in any specific order; you can jump around from section to section. 

Emily, English major/Writing Studies minor: After you’ve finished writing a first draft of your paper, READ YOUR PAPER OUT LOUD! After working on it for an extended period of time, it’s so easy to miss things no matter how many times you review it on your screen. Reading the paper out loud is so helpful in catching grammatical mistakes, missing punctuation, and hearing how the paper flows.  

Carson, Secondary English Education major: Always write your introductions last.  

Allison, English major/Art minor: In terms of writing advice, I think it’s really important to get into the practice of letting your peers read your work, even if it’s just like your best friend. Just letting someone else see it to review it and letting another person get another pair of eyes on it is an important part of the writing process in my opinion. 

Jake, Writing Studies major: Write a bad first draft. 

As you can see, there are lots of different approaches to writing. The important thing is to figure out what works best for you and your writing style, habits, and productivity. Writing is a process that involves a lot of different moving parts, and the journey is usually never linear. Author Akemi Dawn Bowman says, “Focus on your own journey, and try not to worry about what’s going on in the lane next to you” (“21 Authors Share One Piece of Advice for Writers”). I hope these tips and tricks from our tutors are helpful to you! As always, stop by the Writing Center for more help! We’re open Monday through Thursday from 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM and Fridays from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Feel free to drop in or better, make an appointment through Starfish (click here for instructions). Happy writing!

          Hello, Marauders! Welcome back to another day of learning something important! Today, I’ll be talking about who the Writing Center is open to–you! Who can come to the Writing Center? The answer is everyone and anyone who needs help with a writing assignment! 

          Here at the Writing Center, peer tutors help students with brainstorming, organizing, revising, and more. Our peer tutors are students who help fellow students improve their writing and gain a better understanding of the writing process. If it sounds strange or bothersome to have someone your age be your tutor, don’t worry! It can be a little daunting to have a fellow student or potential classmate look at your writing and give you feedback on it. Maybe you’re worried that they’re going to judge your work or mercilessly rip it apart and point out all the mistakes and flaws in it.

           BUT! It actually isn’t as bad as you might think, and let me tell you why. At the Writing Center, we don’t judge your work and we don’t do feedback like that. We don’t sit and mark up your paper with red ink. Rather, we work WITH you to help you better understand the assignment, the requirements, your goals for it, and what YOU want to focus on. We understand the time and effort you put into writing that paper, and we understand that it may or may not have been your favorite assignment ever…

          After all, we are students too, just like you–which means that just like you, we are also learning and improving as we go. We also have questions and we also definitely don’t know everything! Our top priority is to help you the best we can to improve your writing skills and help you gain confidence in your writing. 

          I hope this helps clarify who the Writing Center is for. Some helpful reminders: 

• We are open Monday through Thursday from 1:00 pm to 9:00 pm and on Fridays from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. 
• We offer in-person, online, and Zoom tutoring sessions. Schedule an appointment with us through Starfish (see How to Schedule an Appointment on Starfish for instructions) or feel free to drop in! Our location is McNairy Library Room 106.
• Contact us by emailing writing.center@millersville.edu or calling (717) 871-7389.

Remember: You are important to us and we want to help you become the best writer you can be! Happy writing!

Hello, Millersville students and staff! Welcome to the Writing Center’s blog!

For those of you that don’t know what we’re all about, the Writing Center is a place where you can get help with, well, writing. Our mission statement comes down to five words: “Every Writer Needs a Reader”. So if you need help figuring out grammar or citation styles for a term paper, or if you want tips on how to create the perfect resume or cover letter, our staff of trained tutors can guide you through it. We help at any stage of the writing process, whether it’s brainstorming or implementing a professor’s feedback. And the best part is that we’re all students, just like you. We know what it’s like to need a second pair of eyes on something before you submit it. Whether it’s written up or typed down, we are more than happy to help.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, whether it’s in-person or over Zoom, you can email us at Writing.Center@millersville.edu or call us at (717) 871-7389. We also accept walk-ins! You can find us at McNairy 106 (right across from the Starbucks) every Monday through Thursday from 1-9 PM, and on Sundays from 6-9 PM. Either way, we hope to see you around!