Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Welcome to the Writing Center! In this short video, you'll learn a few of the essential
ways the Writing Center can assist you with your writing at Walden.
But before we begin, here's a picture of our staff at Walden's Minneapolis office at one
of our yearly retreats. Many of us live and work in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but others
flew in from around the United States. I know it can sometimes feel like you are
isolated at Walden because most of your interactions with classmates, faculty, and staff are online.
However, know that at the Writing Center, there are people behind those computers who
are here to help. How do we help you? Here is a part of the
Writing Center's mission statement: "Our staff of dedicated professionals supports students
in building and applying their writing skills as scholars, practitioners, and agents of
positive social change." In short, we want to help you not only reach
your educational goals but also make a positive impact on your community.
To do this we are your go-to place for help with writing, citing sources, and grammar.
Part of helping you with writing means giving you feedback and tips on organization, idea
development, and paragraphing. In fact, that's a lot of what we do because many students
aren't familiar with the type of writing we do at Walden--what we call "academic writing."
We also help students with APA, like citing sources and creating references list. Learning
APA can be difficult, so we're here to help. Lastly, we also help students with grammar.
This includes what we normally think of as grammar, like sentence structure and punctuation,
but also topics that might be new to you, such as word choice and tone.
The Writing Center has two teams: the Writing Instructors and the Editors. You will primarily
work with the Writing Instructors. The Writing Instructors are available to help
via all the services we will talk about today, and we work with students on assignments like
shorter discussion posts and course papers, but also longer final papers.
Now that you know who we are, let's talk about what you really are here for: What we can
do for you. We are going to highlight four services today. While these aren't, by any
means, all of the services the Writing Center offers, they are a great place to start.
You'll access all of these services via our website, shown here, but the website itself
is a great resource to help with your writing, APA, and grammar and is available 24/7. From
transitions and formatting to thesis statements and organization: The tutorials on the website
explain each writing topic in-depth, as well as give you specific examples.
For instance, one of the most popular resources on the website is the Templates page, found
under the "APA Style" tab. We have many templates for different programs, but the most common
one is the first one listed, the Course Paper template, which you can use to write your
general course papers. Simply download the template, which is already formatted per APA,
and either write directly within the template or copy and paste your writing into the template
to use its formatting. We have a few tips and tricks for navigating
the website. First, our Quick Answers database is available on the home page. Quick Answers
is a searchable database that provides answers to common questions we have received from
students. Next, you can easily search all of the website
at any point by using the search box at the top right corner of every page. This box allows
you to easily search key words or topics on our website, finding relevant pages and tutorials
to help you in your writing. Finally, you can use the five blue buttons
on our home page to direct you to various parts of the website. For example, I'll be
talking about our paper review service next, which you can find more information about
by clicking the "Paper Review" button shown here.
The Writing Instructors offer a paper review tutoring service. These paper reviews are
an opportunity for you to get a reader's perspective on your writing. In a paper review appointment,
we will point out patterns in your writing, as well as give suggestions for ways to improve
your writing in general. In this way, paper reviews are like mini writing lessons--our
goal is to teach you something about writing that you will be able to use in all your other
assignments. Because of this, paper review appointments are not a way for you to get
your writing edited. Instead, we focus on developing your writing skills and empowering
you to revise and improve your writing on your own.
Paper reviews work by appointment via our myPASS schedule, which you can access in your
MyWalden portal. When you first access our paper review schedule, you'll need to register.
As a graduate student, you'll use our Graduate Coursework Schedule. Then, when you make an
appointment, you'll fill out an appointment form. Filling out this form is very important:
It ensures we can give you the most useful and relevant feedback possible for your draft,
so please give us as much detail as possible and feel free to update the form as your appointment
with us gets closer. Note that there isn't any specific time associated
with paper review appointments--we won't call or chat you. Instead, you'll upload your paper
by 5:00 a.m. Eastern time on the day of your appointment. Then, we are able to spend all
of the appointment devoted to your written draft, embedding comments into your document
and e-mailing it back to you within 2 business days.
You are able to reserve an appointment as far as 2 weeks ahead of time, and we suggest
students reserve appointments at least 2-5 days ahead of time; otherwise, they might
become filled by other students. However, note that you don't have to upload your paper
when you schedule an appointment; you're only required to upload your paper by that 5:00
a.m. Eastern time deadline I mentioned before. So, feel free to make an appointment ahead
of time, then upload your paper at a later date when you have a draft ready.
Finally, note that if you're a doctoral student, you are only able to submit writing that is
not related to your final doctoral study for paper review appointments. Once you start
working on your final study (like your prospectus or proposal for your final capstone), even
if you are working on it as part of a course, we can't review those documents. That's why
we encourage all students to use our paper review services early in their program. You're
also welcome to e-mail us with any questions you have about paper review appointments,
and I'll show you how to do so soon. Webinars are another great way to use the
Writing Center. In these 1-hour, live presentations we discuss a writing, grammar, or citation
topic. For example, we have webinars about organization, paragraphing, tone, grammar,
and APA citations. We even have webinars specifically for you as graduate students!
To attend a live webinar, register via the webinar calendar. You can click the live link
to access this calendar now. During the webinar, you can listen to our presenter, chat with
other staff and students, and interact with polls and quizzes to test what you're learning.
We also record all our webinars, so each session we've presented in the past is available in
our webinar archive, located under our webinar calendar. This allows you to watch any webinar
at any time.
The Writing Center is also very active in social media, and we encourage you to contact
us in your preferred method. Our blog, Facebook page, and Twitter account create a sense of
community among Walden students and Writing Center staff. They give you a chance to ask
us questions, too. The most popular method of contacting us,
though, is by e-mail at writingsupport@waldenu.edu. Send any questions, concerns, or feedback
for us to this address, and we promise to respond within 24 hours.
This applies to any topic we've talked about today, like our paper review appointments:
If you'd like more information, please reach out and let us know.
We hope that you'll take advantage of the Writing Center soon and often. Remember, send
us an e-mail with any questions, and happy writing!