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Campus Learning & Writing Centers

Additional Learning Opportunities!

 

Undergraduate and Graduate Workshops

 

Our workshops aren’t just about writing. They’re about curiosity and imagination, about using sources and expressing ideas, about being creative and thinking critically.

 

Led by experienced writing center consultants, each workshop offers an opportunity to work interactively on a particular thinking, reading, or writing skill. You don’t need to do anything to prepare for the workshop or bring anything except yourself and your interest. Workshops are open to anyone in the VCU community, and no registration is required.

 

Undergraduate Workshop Schedule

Graduate Workshop Schedule

 

Walk-in Research and Writing Clinics

We partner with reference librarians from Cabell Library to help you navigate research and writing. Whether you need help picking or narrowing a topic, finding good databases, or refining your search terms, we can help you get your project off the ground. Come ready to discuss your work one-on-one with a librarian and/or Writing Center consultant and then spend some time working individually on your project. We will have to move around between people, but we’ll be back to check in on your progress. You can stop by the clinics any time they’re open.

 

Clinics are held in Cabell’s Multipurpose Room, second floor, room 250

You can find more information at the Library's website. 

 

Undergraduate Workshop Schedule

The following undergraduate workshops are offered from February 20-March 8 All workshops last approximately 50 minutes and are held in Hibbs Hall, Room B16 (in the basement). No registration is required. Current workshop information is also posted on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/VCUWritingCenter.

Mondays at 11:45am and Thursdays at 11:30am	To Quote or Not to Quote: How to Work with Other People's Words	February 20, 23, and 27, and March 1, 5, and 8
Mondays at 12:45pm and Wednesdays at 3pm	Putting the Puzzle Together: Summarizing Scholarly Texts	February 20, 22, 27, and 29 and March 5 and 7
Mondays at 3pm and Wednesdays at 12pm	English Language Resources: Avoiding Plagiarism	February 20, 22, 27, and 29 and March 5 and 7.
Tuesdays at 11:30am and Thursdays at 2pm	English Language Resources: Vocabulary Building: Tips and Tricks for Efficient Reading	February 21, 23, and 28 and March 1, 6, and 8.
Wednesdays at 2pm and Thursdays at 5pm	Marketing Yourself: How to Stand Out in a Personal Statement	February 22, 23, and 29 and March 1, 7, and 8

 

To Quote or Not to Quote: How to Work with Other People’s Words

Offered Monday, February 20 and 27 and March 5 at 11:45am and Thursday, February 23 and March 1 and 8 at 11:30am

Led by Lauren Miner

 

Your assignment calls for you to do research, so you found some scholarly texts to read. But what’s next? Your sources have a lot to say, but you don’t want to let them to do all the talking. You want to moderate their debate with your own words. So how do you decide when a quote is helpful or when to paraphrase? What about when to include your own interpretation? In this workshop, we’ll look at different types of quotes to see which ones are useful for your writing and which ones to set aside. Then your sources can most effectively support—and expand—your own ideas.

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Putting the Puzzle Together: Summarizing Scholarly Texts

Offered Monday, February 20 and 27 and March 5 at 12:45pm, and Wednesday, February 22 and 29 and March 7 at 3pm

Led by Heather Fox

 

Scholarly articles can seem dense and scary, and finding the main claim can be like sorting through all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Which pieces are the claims? What about evidence?  You think you’ve got it, and then another paragraph appears to have another argument. So how do you find the important information? This workshop will focus on techniques to identify the main claim and sub-claims so you can really see—and summarize—what your source is saying and apply it to your own work. Then you’ll be able to see the big picture.

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English Language Resources: Avoiding Plagiarism

Offered Monday, February 20 and 27 and March 5 at 3pm, and Wednesday, February 22 and 29 and March 7 at 12pm

Led by Christian Horlick

One of the worst feelings is to be accused of plagiarism when it was not your intention to take credit for someone else’s ideas. Not all students realize the pitfalls that can occur when using sources. Some of the ins and outs of properly citing sources can be confusing, made more so when you are still learning the English language and all its nuances. For example, how do we know if a piece of information is common knowledge or not? How much of an actual source can be used before it is considered plagiarism? In this workshop, we will look at and correct citation errors together in order to help you recognize and avoid them in your own work. We will also give you the tools to best integrate sources into your own writing, thereby helping you to avoid plagiarism.

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English Language Resources: Vocabulary Building: Tips and Tricks for Efficient Reading

Offered Tuesday, February 21 and 28 and March 6 at 11:30am Thursday, February 23 and March 1 and 8 at 2pm

Led by Cat Modlin

Reading academic sources can be boring, tiring, and sometimes completely confusing, even in your native language! So if you’re relatively new to speaking English, reading academic sources can be like wading through a swamp of unfamiliar words. How are you supposed to get through dense texts without picking up a dictionary every five minutes? In this workshop we will explore different tricks in the system of the English language for understanding an unfamiliar word in its context, without needing to use a dictionary as often. By employing these strategies, you’ll be able to expand your vocabulary, develop your reading comprehension, and quicken your reading speed.  

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Marketing Yourself: How to Stand Out in a Personal Statement

Offered Wednesday, February 22 and 29 and March 7 at 2pm; and Thursday, February 23 and March 1 and 8 at 5pm

Led by Courtney Sviatko

Writing personal statements is really hard. Seriously. It’s surprisingly hard to write about ourselves. We’re never really taught how to do that. In fact, we’re taught that modesty is a virtue, that we shouldn’t go around bragging about how great we are. But here you are, trying desperately to get into med school or law school, to earn a place in a grad program or to win a scholarship and WHAM! Suddenly you have to figure out a way to make the reader believe you’re the most qualified candidate for the spot. Unfortunately, if you’re like most of us, that’s pretty intimidating. “What have I ever done that’s special?” you might think. “I’m boring. How can I stand out?” A lot of us feel that way. In this workshop, we’ll stop worrying about trying to come up with fantastic stories and instead focus on ways to make the most of our regular old experiences. By reconceiving the personal statement as a marketing tool, you’ll learn how to talk and write about your experiences in a way that makes your ordinary experiences extraordinary and shows the reader just how qualified you really are.

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Graduate Workshop Schedule

There are no graduate workshops scheduled at this time. Please check back later in the semester for our offerings! Graduate workshops are held in Hibbs Hall, B-016.  No registration is required, but seating is limited. Workshops last about an hour and a half.

 

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