My time in the Writing Center has taught me so much about
working with others, reflecting in on myself, and about writing in general.
Many students have come in asking for help formatting their papers in MLA and
APA format. While I am still learning about APA format, I am very comfortable
with writing in MLA format. As an English major, all our papers are required to
be written in MLA. I have become so familiar with it that I actually completed
a Works Cited page recently without looking at any supplementary materials. I
did not even realize I had done so until after my last entry was completed and
I was very shocked. I went to the Purdue OWL website at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
to make sure my citations were correct and was surprised to find that my
entries adhered to MLA guidelines. After having to always look up how to cite
things in my Everyday Writer, I felt a sense of accomplishment knowing I had
finally learned some of the citations.
Aside from the technical side of academic writing, I have
also learned how important all the various stages of writing are. I had always
skimmed through brainstorming and pre-writing because I found them to be very
boring, tedious steps in the process. After seeing how helpful some students
found those steps, I began utilizing them in my own writing and have found the
stages very useful. I find it very helpful to write out my ideas and any
additional notes or questions because this enables me to see which idea would
be better suited for an assignment. It also makes me really think about what I
would be more interested in writing, which would lead to the production of a
better paper than if I wrote about something I was not particularly interested
in.
I have found that creating an outline in the pre-writing
phase is very effective when I finally start typing a paper. If I have it set
up logically with my main ideas and supporting details, it is much easier to
make the paper flow smoothly and the writing process is actually quicker. Visually
seeing what the ideas are and how you have connected them makes it easy to spot
any issues with transitions and coherency. Adding these two steps to my writing
process has really helped me organize my papers and has also made writing a
much easier and faster process.
To any students who are having trouble thinking of a topic
for their papers or getting started on writing their papers, I would strongly
recommend utilizing these steps. Trying jotting down some ideas and thinking
about what you could do with them in your assignment. By doing this, you can
see what could and could not work and you would also be able to gauge your own
interest in the topic. If you have trouble figuring out how to organize the
paper, write down all the main points you want to hit, then plug them into a
logical outline. Just use roman numerals, letter, numbers, or anything else
that will help you organize. The first main point will be your introduction and
thesis, and any following points will be where you plug in your main ideas,
topic sentences, and supporting details. This will ensure your paper flows
logically and transitions smoothly. Your last main point should be your
conclusion, which summarizes your main point and makes your final statement.
Adding these two small steps to your writing process will
greatly aid in the development of any paper.
-McKinze
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