The JCCC Writing Center helps college and community

You’ve got a paper due, a deadline looming, and your first draft needs help. You don’t know where to turn. What is a fledging writer to do?

Thankfully, JCCC’s Writing Center offers a number of viable solutions.

The first solution: Visit the Writing Center in LIB 308.

JCCC’s Writing Center, located on the third floor of the library, is a free student and community support center created to assist writers with reviewing, refreshing and raising their writing skills.

Inside the center, trained tutors and faculty members respond to papers, looking at organization and development. Tutors also share revision techniques for reducing mechanical errors so writers can self-edit and proofread with greater confidence.

Resources available at the center range from formatting and styleguides to traditional dictionaries and thesauruses, from specialized books with samples of business writing to model science lab reports as well as other forms of commercial and academic writing. The center also offers handouts with tips on grammar, mechanics and rhetoric.

During spring and fall semesters, the Writing Center is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. During the summer, the center is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

The second solution: Take a one-credit class at the Writing Center.

To improve writing skills, the Writing Center offers one-credit courses. Writers may have their writing proficiency assessed while working through a module that will improve knowledge of grammar and mechanics. Classes are self-paced and individualized.  Students may enroll in these courses up to the last four weeks of the semester. Once enrolled, students need to contact the Writing Center (913-469-3439) to set up meeting days and times.

The third solution: Attend a workshop sponsored by the Writing Center.

Throughout the year, the Writing Center will present workshops on how to correct errors, how to revise, and how to document papers in the Campus Center, COM 319. The times and dates of these workshops are posted on bulletin boards on campus and in the Writing Center.

The fourth solution: Contact the grammar hotline.

For quick answers to grammar and usage questions, the Writing Center offers a grammar hotline. Have your quick questions answered by calling 913-469-4413 or instant messaging. The service is available to students and community members equally.

The fifth solution: Enlist the help of the OWL.

The online writing lab (OWL) allows students to email a paper to the Writing Center and have it reviewed by a tutor within 48 hours. The tutor posts feedback at the end of the writer’s text, answering any questions and providing explanation as to what was written well and what could be improved. More information on submission is available at the Writing Center online.