The Rebooted Writing Center Blog

As we all ready ourselves for the fall semester, the Writing Center wanted to re-introduce you to our blog. It began about 10 years ago, and the most recent post was made in 2008. In fact, it has been so long since anyone made a post that this blog was forgotten. But now it is time to bring our blog back to you! Save the link, share it with friends, put it on Twitter--whatever. We will bring you helpful tips about the writing process, the Dirty Dozen, Writing for Success, or any other topic you all wish for us to discuss. Below you will find the Dirty Dozen schedule. The Dirty Dozen is the workshop that reviews the top errors writers usually overlook in their writing. We hope to see you attending our Dirty Dozen workshop series this semester.

Additionally, we are still committed to the original intent of this blog, which is to do the following:

- to chat about happenings at the Writing Center

- to discuss writing topics

- to share personal stories

- to create a dialogue about the writing process
(From post "Introduction" posted on 10/17/2007)

We look forward to serving you this academic year on your various writing projects--from brainstorming to completed draft, our highly trained consultants are here to help. Come see us in Davis Memorial Library, Room 111 (across from MU Testing and Tutoring Center).

Welcome back!

(by Carrah Royal, Writing Center Assistant Director)

Comments

Three Common Culprits: Fragments, Fused Sentences, and Comma Splices

Ever wonder why we can't just write the way we talk? Wouldn’t it be so much easier if we could? For most of us, however, writing the way we talk isn’t a great idea. Just listen to Boomhower from King of the Hill as he calls 911. Can you imagine an academic paper written Boomhower style? No. Definitely not. This may be unwelcome news, but readers do have expectations of writers, and those expectations change from setting to setting. For example, if we read a creative piece—say The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain—we likely would have more patience with the material than if we read a news article in a periodical (magazine or newspaper) or a professional web page. Readers’ expectations change according to the setting. You might have a group of readers who watch Family Guy or read comic books, and those readers would still expect a more formal writing style if they read your college paper. The sentences need to be clear, first of all. ...

Things Get in the Way

Imagine this: you and your significant other are at a campus event. You can’t help but notice another person making eyes at your sweetie. In fact, you find that you are pretty upset because this person is threatening the agreement between the two of you. That agreement is, obviously, that you are a couple. A similar situation can happen in sentences when considering subject-verb agreement. In the classic Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, 4 th ed ., subject-verb agreement is described as the following: “The number of the subject determines the number of the verb” (9). Yep. Words have to agree. Agreement is paramount. When writing in English, the only numbers a writer needs to concern herself with are one—a.k.a. singular—and more than one—a.k.a. more than one. It’s pure symmetry. However, when phrases interrupt that symmetry, a Pandora’s Box of confusion springs open. The subject and verb agree in the following sentence: Corey loves beating Michel at Call of Du...

On Writing... (#1) - compiled by Sue Ledger

Start writing a new chapter, for if you live by the book you'll never make history. - Ben Sobel There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing. - Benjamin Disraeli No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. - Booker Taliaferro Washington I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like child stringing beads in kindergarten - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another. - Brenda Ueland Journal writing is a voyage to the interior. - Christina Baldwin Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you. - Cyril Connolly Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again. - Delmore Schwartz Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death - fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treache...

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