We’ve all been there—you’ve got a writing assignment due for an important class, and you’re absolutely stuck on where to start, or you’re struggling with keeping yourself accountable and just getting your butt in a chair and getting the work done. Or maybe you just need some feedback on your writing, and don’t know who to turn to since you work full-time and can only work on your school assignments in the evenings.
Kat Greene, interim director of The Writing Center at Ball State, has you covered on all three fronts.
About the Writing Center
“The Writing Center at Ball State offers free, online tutoring sessions for all writers, including evening appointments for those writers working full-time jobs during the day,” she says, so you don’t need to worry about cost or prohibitive hours.
They offer three types of appointments: planning, feedback, and accountability, and they’re basically exactly what they sound like. Planning sessions help you to brainstorm and plan out that big project; feedback sessions allow you to work one-on-one with a tutor for guidance and suggestions, and accountability sessions are like free time to just set aside and write.
More Than Just Appointments
The Writing Center does more than just appointments, though. They also partner with Ball State Online each semester to host presentations about academic writing, geared toward online students.
Topics usually covered in these presentations include good writing habits and strategies.
They also host graduate writing events, called “Write On!”, which are meant to help graduate writers with longer projects stay motivated mid-semester. This semester’s events will be from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, March 15 and 9-11 a.m. Thursday, March 16.
Be on the lookout for more information coming on social media and emails in late February. You can follow The Writing Center at Ball State on Facebook, @writing_center_at_Ball_State on Instagram, and @bsuwrites on Twitter.
How to Make An Appointment
To make an appointment with The Writing Center, says Greene, go to bsu.edu/writingcenter and click the link at the top of the page. This takes you to their online scheduler, WCOnline. You can use your Ball State University username and password to sign in and see their schedules: the Robert Bell location for weekday appointments and Bracken Library for evenings. From there, you can see the available appointment times. Click on the time and tutor you are interested in and fill out the registration form. This is where you can select an online or face-to-face session.
If you make an online appointment, the tutor will reach out via email at the time of the appointment to share a Zoom link and/or Google Doc link to start the session.
Building Community Through Writing
Additionally, The Writing Center is just a good place to build community, particularly for online students. “It’s [a] way for [students] to connect with other students and writers outside of their classes,” notes Greene, so if you’re searching for fellow writers out there, The Writing Center might be a good way to find them.
“I love that The Writing Center is a community of writers who support writers,” says Greene, who’s used The Writing Center herself, even as its interim director, for help with large projects.
“We build relationships with students, faculty, and staff across campus. The Writing Center is a place for everyone. I think the biggest misconception about The Writing Center is that it is only for students who are struggling, and that’s just not true. We are here to support all writers. That’s what I love about being involved with The Writing Center.”