David J. Klooster Center for Excellence in Writing

Written By Writing Assistant and Student Director (Spring 2019), Irene Gerrish 

A common complaint I hear from fellow students, colleagues, and even myself, is that our classes don’t teach us how to do things that are really, really crucial to survival in adulthood. Filing taxes, understanding how mortgages work, and being financially responsible all play integral roles in our adult lives; but understanding each of these is absent from much of our educational experiences. Instead, we learn and memorize rules and proofs in geometry, specific steps of biology lab reports, and the most efficient ways to cram for exams overnight.

    Something required in many college seminars, however, that proves to be very useful into adulthood, is the completion of a group paper. Now, I know what you’re thinking—“How can group papers be of any use to me in the future? They’re miserable, unnecessarily stressful, and I’m more comfortable writing one on my own.” Many of us at the Klooster Center understand and agree with you (we really do). But the challenges implicit in constructing a successful group paper mimic those familiar to those in a collaborative work environment. In any mix of students or coworkers, you’re sure to face stark differences in writing strategies and preferences, research methods, and abilities. For this reason, group papers can certainly be one of the harder college assignments, but certainly, one of the more informative ones. Here are a couple of tips to keep you and your peers on track as you navigate the murky waters of group work.

1. Delegate, delegate, delegate. While it’s tempting to want to take on either all of the work or leave it to be completed by the group’s most competent writers, you are all receiving grades for the same assignment. If your tendency is to try and take on all of the work, divide up the portions of the project and ask your group members which sections they’d be most comfortable with. If your tendency is to let others initiate, make your group members aware of your willingness to tackle things that need to be done. Please know that many professors require peer evaluations to be completed by each group member, and your performance, good and bad, will be noticed by your colleagues!
2. Be smart about task division. Choosing how to divide up tasks can be difficult. Try to rely on the strengths of your group members; strong writers might be more comfortable with editing the final product, whereas strong researchers might appreciate collecting information instead. If you each choose to write sections of the paper, try to have someone look over the rough draft so the voice of your project is (relatively) consistent throughout, which brings me to my next point.
3. Come to the Klooster Center! We are more than willing to assist you with your group papers. All members of the group project are welcome during any one appointment, and we have chocolate!
4. If all else fails, communicate with your professor. If the working dynamics of your group are frustrating and/or fostering a negative environment, let your professors know. They are aware that conflict is a natural part of forcing students to collaborate, and are also equipped help you resolve any rising tensions.

Ultimately, group papers can be a positive collaborative learning opportunity—if everyone is willing to make it work. Overcoming differences and striving towards a common goal are situations we will continually be in throughout our professional, academic, and personal lives, and group papers can be wonderful introductions to this process. Best of luck, and write on!

Written by Writing Assistant and Fellow, Will Lake

Last semester I had the pleasure of living and learning in the beautiful state of Oregon. Through a program sponsored in part by Hope, The Oregon Extension, I was able to travel to a secluded mountain top ex-logging town where we lived in cabins, turned in our phones, and read. The goal of the program is to “get out of the mainstream” but, in doing so, you accomplish so much more. We were offered chickens, goats, wood-burning stoves for heat, and a community of professors and students for intimate learning. The program offered seclusion, to be sure; we lived about an hour from civilization, on top of a mountain, in the middle of federally protected wilderness. On account of the seclusion, we lived distraction-free. Without phones, WiFi, or electronics, we looked around and saw nothing but mountains, trees, and books. Books, books, and more books.

    On average, we probably read between about 600-800 pages of text every week (when we weren’t out backpacking or on a trip). Over a 16 week period, this adds up. I was ashamed to say that, before going out to Oregon as a senior in college, I had almost never picked up, started, and finished a book, cover-to-cover, in my entire life. Why would I? I mean, with Facebook, Instagram, and Netflix, my free-time schedule is pretty booked up. My academic schedule (professors: cover your ears) is about getting things done. When it comes to reading, there comes a difference between “reading” an assigned book, and “ reading the first chapter, skimming, then looking at summaries, then reading the last chapter a month later before the test”. I must say, I am ashamed, looking back, of my poor reading history. It wasn’t till Oregon, when I had nothing else to do but read, that I discovered the joys, benefits, and realities of reading.

    Reading is like working out – the more you do it, the easier it becomes. The more you read, the faster you read, the more you comprehend, the less it strains you. If this analogy holds, in Oregon, I became an Olympian, of sorts. The other thing about reading whole books, versus summaries, quick articles, etc, is that you begin to feel an intimacy with the book – a kinship. It is said that there exists a spiritual relation between human and dog; the same can be said about human and book. They become your friends, whom you understand on a deeper level. You have seen all their inner workings and mysteries. You have toiled over them, you have laughed with them, cried on their pages. And then, when you’re finished with them, they stand proudly upon your shelf, perhaps for years, waiting for that sweet, precious moment when you return to them to reminisce, and to have a chat with your long-lost friend. Other than being your friend, there is one indirect consequence of reading: your writing drastically improves. When I arrived in Oregon, I could write. By the time I left Oregon, 12,000 pages later, I thought in quotes. I wrote in terms of language, style, and ideas that I had collected from thousands of pages of text. It happened sub-consciously, but the effects were more than evident. I realized that my whole life was connecting to what was going on in the texts, and I was able to process it far better in terms of text then I ever have been before. I was writing effortlessly, with my gears lubed; I had fresh ideas constantly on my mind and thousands of examples of argumentation, proper structure, and fascinating style. I spent hundreds of hours in the intellectual gym, and it had paid off. My writing biceps were bigger than ever before.

    Now I am home, and I write now and then, and I read less and less. I edit and write papers, and yet, I feel my biceps thinning. I’m realizing that there is no substitute for the real thing – for reading. As for me, it’s time to get back to the gym. Maybe I’ll start with some Hemingway for calisthenics, then perhaps move into Socrates for my power-lifting. As long as pages are turning, there are myriad ways that I am growing.

Written by Writing Assistant Becca Stanton 

It’s hard enough to write a college-level paper with so many citation styles and formatting rules to keep track of, but living in a world full of social media can throw another banana peel under the writer’s foot. I’ve had to learn that the hard way. I’m an English major, but I’ve recently started taking Communication classes, and the writing required of a Communication student is a whole different ball game. There’s a writing style that is specific to the world of journalism and online media, called “A.P.” style, or Associated Press. The bones of it are the same as most other writing styles, but there are certain things to keep in mind.

    The A.P. style paper isn’t argumentative. It doesn’t necessarily have a thesis, but instead has a lede. The lede follows the headline of the article to draw a reader’s attention into the content. The headline is like a paper’s title, but very matter-of-fact and to the point. A.P. articles are usually news-related, so it would be typical to see an article titled something like, “Woman saves cat from tree branch.” Doesn’t sound very creative, right? Journalism is all about reporting the facts. The lede acts like a thesis in that it encapsulates the main point of the written piece, but it doesn’t present something to be analyzed or challenged. It presents a fact that the journalist has decided represents the feature story the best.

    Now, why does this kind of writing matter to a college student? From my perspective, I think that it can be useful to not only know how to analyze work, but to inform people when the need arises. I can see myself having to come up with a report or even an article of some kind at a future job, so having some knowledge of A.P. style under my belt is reassuring. Another reason to be aware of it is to understand press releases. There are times when companies send out press releases about their new products or events, which generally have promotional information. They have to be factual and detailed, but also short and sweet. There also has to be a contact person for the organization listed. In the Communication classes that I have taken, I have learned that it pays to be wary of press releases. An organization always tries to frame their product or event in the best light while presenting things factually, so it is important to look at journalists’ work reporting on press releases to get unbiased and cross-referenced information. Practicing this observation can be helpful for college students who are trying to budget and who are trying to land a job anywhere. Being able to work with a marketing team to give people honest and attractive descriptions of what your company is doing is a great skill.

    One of the most important things that I have learned as a writer about A.P. style journalism is the power of being concise. Most journal articles are between three hundred to five hundred words, and all of the really important information is crammed in at the top. This can throw people off, because it is a lot different than the buildup of thesis-driven essays. The A.P. article almost launches the conclusion at you first. I have always struggled with verbosity and wanting to explain things in great detail, so looking at writing from this approach has helped me to think about how to start with the basics and then expand where there is a need and where there is room. Based on the length of this blog post, you can see I’m still working on it!

Being a writing assistant, I’ve seen a lot of different writing styles that work for a lot of different fields of work, but I recommend that you check out A.P. if you don’t have a career choice in mind yet. It’s a great backup for wherever your dreams and talents might take you.

Written by Writing Assistant Rebekah R. 

When I was first nominated to work at the writing center during the summer before my Sophomore year at Hope, I was interested in the opportunity to get paid to help my fellow students with their writing. I was excited to have an on-campus job that I would enjoy, but I didn’t really understand how it would connect with my future career goals. At the time, I was considering a career in the medical field. After I told this to one of my fellow Writing Assistants (WAs) on the second day of our August training, she asked me a question that puzzled me: how do you think that working at the Writing Center will tie in with your future career?

In that moment, I had no idea how to answer her question. I told her that I didn’t think that working at the Writing Center would have any connection to my career goals, but I was excited to have the job and explore writing as one of my interests. I assumed that if I were looking for a career in writing, editing, or journalism, like some of the other WAs were, that the job would actually prepare me for my career. On the other hand, since I was interested in science and health care, working as a WA would have little to no impact on my future. At this time, I didn’t realize that the job would allow me to improve or gain skills beyond writing and editing.  

About a year later, I decided that the medical career that I wanted to pursue was physical therapy (PT). The first time that I job shadowed a physical therapist, I was surprised. Much of the work that she did looked a lot like what I do at the Writing Center. I began to see how I could have answered the question that the former WA posed the year before. Here are three ways that working as a WA will help me be a better physical therapist in the future.

1. Teaching –
Other than their role as medical professionals, PTs act as educators. During appointments they teach their patients stretches and exercises for alleviating their pain and/or other symptoms. They teach patients how to perform these exercises at home and how to continue them throughout their lives in order to maintain improvements. Similarly, as a WA, I work with students to teach them how to become better writers, not only for the paper that they are working on in the session, but for all of their future writing endeavors.

2. Sensitivity –
PTs are professionals who must be sensitive to the personal issues that their patients face. Many patients come to the clinic with chronic and/or debilitating pain. Others face frustration with their injuries or are hopeless, feeling that they will never improve. In the same way, many students bring their papers to the Writing Center having put enormous amounts of time and effort into them. Some feel that they are terrible writers, and no matter how hard they try, their writing will never improve. As a WA, I have to be sensitive to the work that my fellow students have already put into their papers before they meet with me. Like PTs, I am constantly looking for encouraging ways to guide those I help in improving their weaknesses and maximizing their strengths.

3. Intercultural Understanding –
As a future PT, one of my goals is to be able to use my Spanish skills to work with Hispanic populations, but even PTs who don’t seek out these opportunities find themselves in situations where cultural competence is key. As a WA, some of my most memorable appointments were working with students for whom English is a second language. Right from the start of the appointment they would often ask me to please check for their grammar mistakes, but typically, the majority of my feedback actually had to do with their writing style. In order to direct the students towards the direct and concise U.S. English writing style that their professors would expect, I had to have a good grasp of how writing style in other languages and countries differs from the one that I grew up knowing.

All things considered, I am excited to graduate and move on to a career that I will enjoy at least as much as I have enjoyed working as a WA. Sometimes I wonder how I ended up deciding to pursue PT and I think about how I slowly fell in love with helping other students improve their writing. Maybe, while experiencing how satisfying it is to teach others and help them achieve their goals as a WA, I realized that this was the type of thing that I wanted to continue doing for the rest of my life.