Title: Close Reading Analysis
Description:
The more time one spends with a
text, the deeper the analysis can be. In college, the first step to a
great paper is ensuring understanding of the text through close reading
analysis.
This workshop gives students the chance to practice and familiarize themselves with close reading strategies, such analyzing vocabulary for connotative and denotative definitions, marking the text (print or digital), questioning ideas, considering biases, and rereading. This workshop may also include some elements of summation, as a reflective practice.
Title: Framing An Argument
Description:
One of the most important skills to develop for academic writing is the ability to summarize, or “frame” an argument. Doing so can help show the reader that you have invested time in understanding the other writer’s ideas and can offer a balanced, well thought out criticism of the argument presented. This workshop exposes students to some of the key elements to focus on when trying to frame an idea, starting with a basic analysis using the 5 Ws of investigative journalism and moving on to more complex elements of argumentation, such as identifying the audience, intention and appeals to logic, emotions or a reader’s principles.
Title: How to be a Good Proofreader
Description:
So, you finished your paper? Now what? Are you still not sure if it is ready to be graded by your professor? Building strong proofreading skills is valuable in college. It helps develop independence by growing your confidence level with fixing sentence-level concerns. In this workshop, you will learn some of the best proofreading practices.
Title: How to Read in College
Description:
Often underemphasized in the transition from high school to college learning are the critical reading techniques that help students excel in their academic writing. This workshop reviews some of the most important techniques for good critical reading, showing how the first reactions to what you read can sometimes be the key to coming up with a strong written response.
Title: How to Read Poetry in College
Description:
College introduces students to a lot of
different forms of writing. Some students might say that the most intimidating
form is poetry due to its assumed emphasis on sound rather than meaning.
Regardless, poetry is encountered often in English courses. With this in mind,
this workshop will help students learn how to read poetry, providing you with
methods that will make poetry more enjoyable and less intimating to read.
Title: How to Use Signal Verbs (And Why You Need Them)
Description: Understanding how to properly use signal verbs and phrases can help students introduce quotes and ideas more effectively, while helping to avoid plagiarism. This brief workshop reviews best practices for paraphrasing and incorporating quotes in a way that is seamless and enhances the academic tone of your paper.
Title: How to Write a Good Summary
Description: When trying to summarize an idea or published text, it is good to know the best practices are for doing so. This workshop helps composition students understand how best to present information about a text, in a way that is succinct, yet captures the most important characteristics of that text.
Title: Interpreting vs. Retelling
Description:
For students new to academic writing, one the toughest things is knowing the difference between interpreting an idea and just repeating it. This workshop introduces students to some best practices for discerning meaning from the text they read and presenting that meaning in way that helps create a successful paper.
Title: Paraphrasing & Quoting for a Strong College Essay
Description:
A strong argument is always backed up with evidence. How should you include this evidence? The two most common ways writers include evidence is through paraphrasing or quoting. This workshop will give you a better understanding of differences between quoting and paraphrasing as well as how to properly do both without being accused of plagiarism.
Title: Summarizing vs. Paraphrasing
Description: A strong
argument is always backed up with evidence. How should you include this
evidence? One common way writers include evidence is through paraphrasing.
However, how does paraphrasing differ from summarizing? This workshop helps
composition students understand how best to present information about a text,
in a way that is succinct, yet captures the most important characteristics of
that text. In addition, this workshop will give you a better understanding of the
differences between summarizing and paraphrasing.
Title: Synthesizing Sources
Description:
In college, you are asked to do research. Research requires reading multiple texts. However, after reading so many texts, you might have to write only one paper. How do you take information from different texts and combine them to create one coherent paper? In this workshop, you will discover practices that will improve your research paper writing.
Title: Using MLA to avoid Plagiarism
Description:
What is MLA format? How and when do we use it? Why is it important? The Writing Center MLA workshop helps students understand how to format their paper in MLA style, cite information and create a works-cited page so that the information they use to prove a point is given proper credit and plagiarism is avoided.
Title: Using a Thesis and Outline to Construct Your Paper
Putting together a good essay can be less difficult than it seems. When we have the right structure on which to build and organize our compositions, it can help us stay focused on what we want to do with our words. Join us for this workshop where we will talk about some best practices for setting up your essay before you start writing, including how to craft a strong thesis statement, how to outline your supporting paragraphs, and how to detail your essay using strong topic sentences and evaluative statements.
Title: Understanding Relations and Making Transitions
It is common to feel like the ideas you put on the paper do not connect. You might fear that your 5-page paper sounds like one long rant. Thankfully, there are transitional phrases that can help you understand how to make transitions and connections between thoughts. This workshop will help you understand the different functions transitional words have and how best to utilize them in your own writing.
Title: What Is Academic Writing?
Description: College introduces us to various genres of writing that are new and unknown to incoming students. The blanket term for writing produced in college is “academic writing.” This workshop will answer the question, “What is Academic Writing?” It will get students acquainted with the terminology used by professors to explain writing genres. Overall, a student who takes this workshop will have a better understanding of the expectations associated with various types of “academic writing.”
