Year-In-Review: Walden University Writing Center 2017
Monday, December 25, 2017
Capstone Writing
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Fun With Writing Center Staff
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As 2017 comes to a close, we in the Writing Center are
reflecting on our services for the Walden community this past year: what new
offerings we have created and new staff we have added, and how we have
organized our center to best meet student writing needs. One change we made
later in the year is that our spectrum of services is now distinguished as two
offices, the Office of Writing Instruction and the Office of Academic Editing.
We asked the managers of these two offices to capture the year in review for
their teams.
We began by asking what were the top three questions
students asked and what resources the team provides to answer those questions. For
managers of the Office of Academic Editing, Tobias Ball and Kelly Chermack, who
oversee support for doctoral students at the proposal and final capstone stage and the final form and style review, the top question was about formatting the
final manuscript for publication in ProQuest. Both Walden and ProQuest have
publication guidelines, and the editors have created templates that have built-in styles for all the formatting specifications. The templates include
instructions, and a short video on working in the template is also available. The form and style checklist also provides formatting guidance.
Another frequently asked question is how students can become
more effective editors of their own writing. To assist with this, the editors
host live editing tutorials through the Walden Capstone Writing Community and
also present a webinar entitled Revising and Self-Editing a Doctoral Capstone. Understanding the writing expectations for a doctoral
capstone is another common question for students. To help, the editors have
created an entire website dedicated to understanding not only the writing
expectations for doctoral-level writing but also the expectations for the final
form and style review. A few webinars also address this question: Transitioning From Coursework to Doctoral Capstone Writing and Writing Process for Longer Research Projects.
We also asked Kelly and Tobias what they wanted students to
know about the editor team. Their overwhelming response is they wanted students
to know how dedicated the editors are to helping students produce a
publication-ready manuscript and how many ways students can connect with the
editors and get questions answered: e-mailing editor@waldenu.edu, chatting live
with Editors during Office Hours, joining the Walden Capstone Writing Community,
viewing webinars, and attending residencies and intensive retreats. The team
added three editors this year to help support our doctoral capstone students. When
asked what stands out about the year for the editor team, Kelly and Tobias
highlighted the new name, the Office of Academic Editing, to reflect the work the
editors do to help students at the capstone stage, from the proposal right
through to graduation.
We also spoke with Rachel Willard, who manages the Office of
Writing Instruction alongside Anne Shiell. Rachel mentioned that the most
common query among students who request paper reviews, visit our live chat, or e-mail
us at writingsupport@waldenu.edu is “Can
you help me with my APA?” Learning APA style is a common struggle for students
who are new to it, and it’s often the reason students seek out help. Rachel
noted, however, that although students typically focus their requests on APA, students
find during a paper review that their requests actually span both APA specifics
and instruction in areas such as scholarly voice or organization of ideas. Another
common question is around help navigating our paper review schedule, or myPASS,
which is separate from the usual student portal processes. The writing
instructors recommend our video tutorials that make this process easy to
follow.
When asked what she would like students to know about the writing instruction team, Rachel wanted to reassure students that the writing
instructors are here for them, that they are not as intimidating as students
might expect writing experts to be. The team is extremely student-centered, and
once students begin sending their work for reviews, they often make it a habit.
Students develop relationships with the writing instructors they work with, and
both student and writing instructor celebrate successes and improvements. When
looking back on 2017, Rachel said that what stands out most is the focus on
improving processes and teaching practices to better serve students. The team
has grown over the past few years, and each new staff member brings new ideas
and gifts to the team and to the center as a whole.
We hope you’ll take some time to get to know our Writing Center staff in 2018. They are doing amazing work to help Walden students
strengthen their writing skills and their future publications, and they’re
ready to be there for you, too!
Amber Cook and Martha King contributed to this report. They are associate directors in the Writing Center, Amber of Faculty Outreach and Support, Martha of Doctoral Capstone Quality Initiatives.
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Everything is very open with a clear explanation of the issues.
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely informative. Your website is very helpful.
Thanks for sharing!
So glad to know you've found our blog posts helpful!
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