Year-In-Review: Walden University Writing Center 2017

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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