I Only Have 5/20/60 Minutes! Which Writing Center Resources are Right for Me?
Have you ever told yourself that you'd practice your writing if you just had a little bit more time? Today's post makes that excuse irrelevant. The Walden University Writing Center has on-demand resources that can be useful in any time-increments. Read on to learn how to continue improving your academic writing in manageable periods each day.
One of the biggest complaints I hear from students is “I
don’t have time for that.” There’s no way to sugarcoat the situation: Time is your natural enemy. In any given 24
hours, you may be working your professional job, engaging in Walden coursework,
preparing a meal, exercising, commuting, managing parental duties, and getting
a few hours of sleep. It’s hard to think of adding more to that list of
activities.
But in order to succeed at Walden, you will need to carve out some time for skill development above and
beyond your classroom requirements. Writing proficiency is something that will
serve you in your program by way of confidence, clear communication, and swift
achievement of milestones. It is also something that you take with you after
completing your degree, with the potential to impact your career as a
scholar-practitioner.
So the question is: How can you hone your writing skills without
losing the precious work-life-school balance you have achieved? Two years ago,
in a WriteCast podcast episode, my colleagues Nik and Brittany introduced Writing Center resources
and tips appropriate for short nuggets of time. In this blog post, I update
their list of resources with a few of my own. So the next time you’re about to
forgo writing because you feel like you don’t have the time, hopefully this can
be you instead:
“I want to utilize the Writing Center’s resources to practice my scholarly writing, but shoot! I only have…”
5 minutes:
Read a Writing Center
blog post, skim a web page, or view a video. Have you identified one
writing issue you’d like to work on? It’s a great idea to have goals for each
quarter or semester. Once you have chosen your writing goal for this term, you
can learn about it in short 5-minute bursts. Use the website’s Search button in
the upper right to find appropriate blog posts, web pages, and videos—and then
bookmark and work through them one at a time. Perfect for: waiting for the water to boil on the stove.
Freewrite or journal. It might seem silly, but getting in the habit of
writing will make your “for real” academic writing better. Keep a journal nearby
where you can freewrite for 5 minutes about the weekly course topic, your
research process, or even about your day. Perfect
for: sitting in the parking lot waiting for kids to finish sports practice
or school.
20 minutes:
Listen to an episode
of our WriteCast podcast, a casual conversation for serious writers. The audio podcast tackles such subjects as the writing process,
the perfect paragraph, writer’s block, and word choice. Downloadable to your
device of choice. Perfect for:
commuting to work or exercising.
60 minutes:
Watch a recorded webinar. The Writing
Center presents three to four live webinars per month, and all of these get
archived on the website. Start with What Is Academic Writing? and then work through the webinars in the Scholarly Writing category for an overview of key writing concerns. Each recording is
roughly 1 hour. Perfect for: viewing
while munching on your lunch break.
Take a grammar or APA module and then apply what you learned. Feeling
interactive? The Writing Center offers modules on APA style and on grammar
issues such as verbs and sentence structure. These are 30-45 minutes in length
and include quizzes, videos, and text-based instruction to support your
learning. After taking one of these modules, reread a past discussion post or
paper and analyze what you would do to improve it, based on your new knowledge.
Jot down a few tips to apply to a future assignment. Perfect for: taking a breather from a strenuous assignment; staying
writing-minded during the weeklong hiatus between quarters.
Now do you see how writing skill development can fit into
your life? Yes, you do have time for that—even if it’s just 5 minutes a day.
Hillary Wentworth has been mentoring Walden writers since 2010—first in the Writing Center and now in the Academic Skills Center. In addition to teaching, she serves as the Academic Skills Center’s Manager of WCSS Faculty Development and Graduate Writing Courses to ensure quality instruction. Hillary edits an online literary journal and writes her own nonfiction from her home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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