Photo by: Henoc Kivuye
A national event that encourages students to write, is coming to Oklahoma Christian University.
Through the efforts of senior Hannah Ketring, director of the writing center, and Gail Nash, assistant professor of English, the Oklahoma Christian Writing Center will be throwing a Shut Up and Write party on Nov. 19.
Since a majority of majors on campus have some type of written assignments incorporated into their coursework, the writing center offers help. From sentence structure to thesis formation, the writing center ensures that a student’s writing is sufficient for college-level work.
“People can come and eat dinner and work on major sections of projects and papers,” Ketring said. “The idea is that you come in and grab some food and get focused and settled in with other people who are also needing to get work done.”
During normal business hours, tutors work with students on ways to improve not only their paper, but also their writing.
“We really expect it to be an interactive thing,” Nash said “We expect for the writers to be participating, whether or not you are from the Bridge Program or working on your Capstone paper. We expect that if you have written a paper you know what you want to say. We don’t know what you want to say, the assignment or anything regarding the paper – the student knows that. I want everyone to know that we bring something to the conference table, the tutor brings the careful critical reading but the writer brings the ‘This is what I want to say,’ attitude.”
Nash also states that any session with a tutor from the writing center will leave a student with crucial feedback on how to improve their paper.
Both Ketring and Nash saw this as an opportunity to help more students. Ketring recounts how the idea came about.
“I went to a conference last spring where I met with a lot of other writing centers from different colleges and universities, including the University of Oklahoma where it is known as ‘Waffles and Writers,’” Ketring said. “I thought it was such a neat idea to have a space where people could just work without any distractions.
Students look forward to the chance to get help on their papers and enjoy free food. Freshman Caitlyn Marshall sees this event as a positive catalyst in the writing of her paper for English Composition I.
“Writing is not a strong point for me,” Marshall said. “I find it difficult to come up with ideas sometimes. When I heard about the party and the chance to get help with writing, as well as just sit and write for a few hours, I knew that it would be beneficial for me to attend.”
The writing party will be Nov. 19 at the windows in the English department on the second floor of the library. Any questions should be directed to Hannah Ketring or Gail Nash. Outside of the writing party, the writing center is available all semester by making an appointment with a tutor through the MyOC services tab.
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