Nathan Marquam, University Writing Center Graduate Consultant
This is a really weird time to be in graduate school. Even writing this blog post feels a little bit odd; this is my first full semester as an English M.A. student and as a liaison between the University Writing Center and the University Graduate Office. A huge part of my job is facilitating programming to support graduate writers. I love my job. I love reading articles about how writing puts people in contact with each other to form an ongoing conversation, how this constructs the act of writing as something that is always communal (Adler-Kassner 18). I love building community around and about writing. But as I’m writing about the power of strong writing communities, I look around and I’m alone in my apartment. It’s harder for me to write about things these days, even things I care deeply about.
If my writing process is struggling under the continued strain of social distancing when building graduate writing communities is literally my job, then I ‘m definitely far from the only graduate student who is feeling this way. Understanding this makes me love my job even more—I get to actually do something about it! Before the pandemic hit, the Writing Center already offered three main types of writing support, and we’ve adapted our programming to allow people to participate safely from the comfort of their homes. In a time when it’s even harder to connect with other people and get support with your writing, communal writing events like these have taken on a new importance.Graduate writers can choose to take part in as many of these kinds of support we offer as they feel they would benefit from.
1) Write-on-Site Events. Offered twice a week, these events have open attendance, meaning that anyone can join at any time. The Write-on-Site is a space where graduate writers of all disciplines can come together to write, talk through their writing, and share strategies for making progress on writing projects in these challenging times. No matter what stage of the writing process you’re in, please feel free to come and join us. You can choose to stay for the whole event or to drop by and write with us for however long you would like. Here are the Zoom links and meeting times for the spring 2021 semester:
Tuesdays from 10am-12pm via Zoom
Thursdays from 3pm-5pm via Zoom
Registration is not required, but if you would like to receive email/calendar reminders about one or both days, you can fill out the Graduate Write-On Site form Graduate Write-On Site form.
2) Writing Groups. Graduate writing groups are a semester-long commitment where the same group of 4-6 graduate students meet for an hour and a half every week. The members cycle through who presents their work. The facilitator sends out the writing from group members each week and offers additional tools, readings, and events that may benefit the group members during the meeting, as well as occasionally offering short workshops.
While the UWC-facilitated groups for spring 2021 aren’t accepting new members right now, we are more than happy to provide support and resources to graduate students who want to start a writing group of their own!
3) One-to-one consulting. Of course, the writing center offers consulting sessions Monday-Friday. This gives you the opportunity to talk through your writing on a more engaged individual level. The writing center offers support in every stage of the writing process, in writing of every field and length; you can schedule with us for anything from a brainstorming session to citation questions! You can schedule in either one or two hour blocks, depending on the length of your project, and can have as many as four appointments a week (but only one per day). To make an appointment, visit the University Writing Center website.
We hope to see you at the Write-on-Site, on the schedule for a one-to-one session, and maybe even starting your own writing group! If you’d like to learn more about the kinds of support we provide, please email us at uwc@iu.edu, call us, or pop into our discord server between 9am and 7pm Monday-Thursday or between 9am and 12pm on Fridays.