As warm rain fell on the Quad outside, the Orange Room hummed with conversation where Bakytgul, a graduate writer, sat down with Cong, a PhD student and Writers Workshop consultant. A frequent visitor of the Writers Workshop—often with Cong as her consultant—Bakytgul was able to comfortably start collaborating on her presentation slides about AI in teacher education. Together, they dove into the project, “shortening sentences, adjusting the layout, and generating…icons.” Both being non-native English speakers, Cong was better able to understand and discuss the “several nuanced issues about wording and phrasing” present in Bakytgul’s work. As they flipped slide to slide, interjecting with lighthearted quips, their laughter reflected the warm, cheery energy of the Writers Workshop.
Especially on a rainy day like this one, some writers cannot make the trek all the way to the Main Library. Tucked away in a corner on the top floor of the Grainger Library, Room 402 is home to the Writers Workshop satellite location where two first-year writers walked into the space for help on the “generic constraints of writing a biology research paper.” Because we serve one of the most prominent research universities in the country, we are prepared to help all genres of writing, including the STEM fields. Macy, a sophomore majoring in neuroscience and the consultant in this appointment, had “background knowledge in the material, [giving her] a chance to ask questions of their work” that allowed her to “[draw] out some more depth and complexity in the writing.” Macy’s use of field specialization when scaffolding in the appointment helped the writers to more easily learn the norms of the writing genre and transfer what they have learned to “not only [their] future classes, but also [their] future career[s].” This group had worked together before, and the two writers “are both extremely inquisitive and supportive of one another, which [made the] sessions both fun and productive.”
When a writer attends their first appointment, they enter a new community and become a part of something bigger than themselves. They become intertwined in the web of writing throughout the larger university. Returning writers form stronger bonds with the space, the front desk, and the consultants, furthering their comfort in and out of the physical appointment area. The rain, although not ideal for traveling to an appointment, helped these writing relationships continue to grow, one consultation at a time.
By: Lyric Roy, Journalism major, Political Science and Studio Art minors, freshman