Writing Center

Writing Workshops
Meet the Mentors
Make an Appointment

The Writing Center offers face-to-face and online peer writing mentoring. The Writing Center offers assistance with the following:

Generating ideas and developing content
Organizing, editing, and revising
Transitioning between ideas and sections
Developing proofreading and editing skills
Developing professional documents such as resumes, cover letters, scholarship and fellowship essays, and personal statements
Integrating sources
Properly formatting in MLA, APA, and Chicago Style

Writing mentors can help writers at various levels of experience and at any stage of the writing process. Mentors come from a variety of majors and are trained to analyze a piece of writing in order to help the writer strengthen their writing ability and have a clear plan to feel confident during the revision process. The mentors do not correct or edit writing; instead, they will ask you relevant questions about your work and discuss strategies to improve your writing.

Services We Provide	Services We DO NOT Provide
We help writers discover and carry out their intentions for a piece of writing. We talk through a writing assignment to help the writer understand the assignment. We act as an informed audience and provide immediate, constructive feedback on a piece of writing – in terms of writing processes, content, structure, and style. We suggest a variety of strategies to writers as they generate ideas and plans for a piece of writing. These invention strategies include freewriting, listing or brainstorming, mapping or clustering, and outlining, as well as others. We help writers identify strengths and weaknesses in their writing and use this information to improve their drafts. We discuss and model useful writing strategies. We discuss only one piece of writing per session. We affirm the writer’s efforts. We adapt our approach as needed.	We cannot presume to fully explain an assignment to a writer on behalf of the instructor who made the assignment. If a writer does not have enough information to understand an assignment, we should suggest that the writer go back for more information. We do not generate ideas, make outlines, or develop organizational plans for writers. Instead, we ask questions, model, and offer strategies that help writers generate ideas, make outlines, etc. We do not compose drafts for writers. We may, however, model an approach to writing an essay, thesis, paragraph, sentence, works cited, etc. We do not “correct” or edit whole papers for errors in grammar, usage, or mechanics. Instead, we may model revising or editing processes or sentence-level corrections on a portion of the writing. We may then ask the writer to apply those same processes or strategies to another portion of the writing. We do not write on the writer’s piece unless to pose questions or identify possible issues to address. We do not write any of the corrections or revisions. Instead, we direct the writer to write his or her own revisions. We do not accept pieces dropped off at the Writing Center to be proofread or edited. The Writing Center is a place of collaboration for teaching and learning, not a proofreading or copyediting service. We cannot predict a response to (or grade for) the piece of writing by its intended/course-related audience. We do not interfere with the relationship between the writer and the instructor. We do not offer false praise. We do not demean the writing, the efforts of the writer, or the writer.

Services We Provide

Services We DO NOT Provide

We help writers discover and carry out their intentions for a piece of writing.
We talk through a writing assignment to help the writer understand the assignment.
We act as an informed audience and provide immediate, constructive feedback on a piece of writing – in terms of writing processes, content, structure, and style.
We suggest a variety of strategies to writers as they generate ideas and plans for a piece of writing. These invention strategies include freewriting, listing or brainstorming, mapping or clustering, and outlining, as well as others.
We help writers identify strengths and weaknesses in their writing and use this information to improve their drafts.
We discuss and model useful writing strategies.
We discuss only one piece of writing per session.
We affirm the writer’s efforts.
We adapt our approach as needed.

We cannot presume to fully explain an assignment to a writer on behalf of the instructor who made the assignment. If a writer does not have enough information to understand an assignment, we should suggest that the writer go back for more information.
We do not generate ideas, make outlines, or develop organizational plans for writers. Instead, we ask questions, model, and offer strategies that help writers generate ideas, make outlines, etc.
We do not compose drafts for writers. We may, however, model an approach to writing an essay, thesis, paragraph, sentence, works cited, etc.
We do not “correct” or edit whole papers for errors in grammar, usage, or mechanics. Instead, we may model revising or editing processes or sentence-level corrections on a portion of the writing. We may then ask the writer to apply those same processes or strategies to another portion of the writing.
We do not write on the writer’s piece unless to pose questions or identify possible issues to address. We do not write any of the corrections or revisions. Instead, we direct the writer to write his or her own revisions.
We do not accept pieces dropped off at the Writing Center to be proofread or edited. The Writing Center is a place of collaboration for teaching and learning, not a proofreading or copyediting service.
We cannot predict a response to (or grade for) the piece of writing by its intended/course-related audience.
We do not interfere with the relationship between the writer and the instructor.
We do not offer false praise.
We do not demean the writing, the efforts of the writer, or the writer.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Follow the Writing Center on Twitter and Instagram at WritingCenterLU and on Facebook at Lewis University Writing Center for up-to-date news and updates about the Writing Center.

For questions about the Writing Center, please contact Jasmine Castillo, Writing Center Assistant Director, via e-mail at castiljs@lewisu.edu or by calling (815) 836-5664.

Writing Center Contact Information: 815-836-5427, writingcenter@lewisu.edu