Libby: 2022-23 Student Coordinator of the Writing Center, English Major, Multimedia Writing Minor

Favorite Quote: “Write until you reach the edge of something, whether it’s the world, the community you live in, or your skin.” ~Bhanu Kapil

Commentary: Writing is more than meeting the rubric requirements. Writing is vulnerability. It is meant to connect us and push our boundaries, to be a catalyst for exploration. This is not meant to intimidate; it is meant to serve as a reminder that—even among so much academic writing—there is opportunity. Opportunity for growth.

Jenna: English Major, Psychology Major, Communication Minor

Favorite Quote: “Fear is felt by writers at every level. Anxiety accompanies the first word they put on paper and the last.” ~Ralph Keyes

Commentary: Whether a twenty-page thesis paper or an email to a professor, writing is stressful. We, as writers, face potential criticism from everyone who reads our work. However! Although the writing process can evoke stress, anxiety, and self-doubt, it also evokes creative expression. As a writer, we get to transport our thoughts and images into someone else's mind. I try to remind myself of this as I write to work past the anxiety that I have. After all, I get to use my voice to illustrate my ideas. That's amazing! 

Davis: English Major, Music Minor

Favorite Quote: “Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” ~William Faulkner

Commentary: When you digest the ideas of writers, you are participating in the great marketplace of human thought. When you write, you take an idea that you have internalized and you make it your own. A mind without great ideas gained from reading will be less equipped for quality writing. If you make a habit of spending time with books, you will be stocked with a bank of top-notch ideas. Then you can use the standards of quality you have gained through reading to assess your own work.

Emily: Communication Major, Legal Studies Major, Spanish Minor, Communication Disorders Minor

Favorite Quote: “Good writing is formed partly through plan and partly through accident.” ~Ken Macrorie

Commentary: Writing is a process that takes time and thought; no matter, facing an empty Google doc is nerve-racking. Once you feel vulnerable enough to type out the beginning of the essay, the flow can sometimes stop. When this happens, I try to outline my essays and then slowly connect the dots. Still, after rereading my work, I find that not everything makes sense, and I will have to go back and revise. Planning is good, but sometimes freewriting comes in handy.

Sabrina: English Major

Favorite Quote: “I don't feel I write fast. I write in longhand and do so much revision. On the page, it's so old-fashioned. I could write a whole novel on scrap paper, scribbles and things. I keep looking at it and something develops. For me, using a word processor would mean staring at a screen for too many hours.” ~Joyce Carol Oates

Commentary: Like Oates, I can stare at a blank screen for hours. I might write two lines in two hours and then delete them. There’s something freeing about putting pen to paper. Writing on paper is comfortable. There’s this feeling that comes while writing—when your hand cramps from exhaustion yet you keep writing—a kind of rush. If you stop writing, your thoughts will vanish forever into endless expanses of time! It’s adventurous, it’s dangerous, and I love it.

Tristen: Legal Studies Major, Business Administration Major

Favorite Quote: “Half my life is an act of revision.” ~John Irving

Commentary: I’ve spent the entirety of my life making mistakes, discovering new ideas, and forming new perspectives. John Irving understood exactly what I’ve come to understand: life is meaningless without revision. Why should the act of writing follow a different standard? In life, our thoughts are subject to comprehensive and calculated revision. As a result, our written thoughts must be subjected to the same level of scrutiny. Only then can our writing—and likewise, our thinking—be perfected.

This year (2022-23), the center welcomes seven students to the team: 

• Audra D.
• Emma B.
• Jerod H.
• Rachel S.
• Sophia G.
• Thomas W.
• Xavier P. 

Their photos will be posted in the spring of '23.