The Writing Center can help you to improve individual essays and papers, but it can also help you to improve your overall writing process. Taking a "process approach" is usually much more beneficial than taking a "product approach," for it grants you an opportunity to refine your skills as a reader, a critical thinker, a planner, a writer, a reviser, a proofreader, and an editor. Instead of simply bringing in a complete draft (a product), students are encouraged to visit the Writing Center during each phase of the writing process.
During the Pre-Writing Stage, WITs can help you to...
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Better understand an assignment or prompt
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Form a response to a reading or topic
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Brainstorm and generate ideas
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Organize and focus your ideas
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Craft a working thesis statement
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Revise and develop your thesis statement
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Create an outline or a concept map
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Plan out a research agenda
During the Drafting Stage, WITs can help you to...
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Review your assignment, thesis, and outline before you begin writing
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Develop strategies for overcoming writer's block
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Create a schedule for your drafting process that leaves time for subsequent drafts/revisions
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Break your assignment down into stages
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Develop strategies for being flexible and "improvising" as your paper develops
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Consider different patterns of development for your supporting paragraphs
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Assess your textual evidence and make informed decisions about when to quote, paraphrase, and summarize
During the Revising Stage, WITs can help you to...
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Get a fresh perspective on what you have written
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Offer constructive feedback on your draft
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Assess the content and organization of your argument
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Refocus your paragraphs toward your thesis
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Improve the coherence of your argument
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Incorporate more transitional words/phrases
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Achieve greater precision with your word choices
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Outline structural and substantive changes
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Assess the unity and coherence of your individual paragraphs
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Analyze and improve your evidence
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Make "macro-level" changes to the paper
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Eliminate unnecessary words, sentences, or paragraphs
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Create a "reverse outline"
During the Editing Stage, WITs can help you to...
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Improve your skills as a proofreader
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Slow down and assess the quality of individual sentences
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Identify patterns of error
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Increase sentence variety
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Improve your sentence structure
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Identify and eliminate punctuation errors
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Check your citations, both in-text and bibliographical
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Create a list of priorities before you turn in the final draft
During the Evaluation Stage, WITs can help you to...
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Read through and understand your professors' comments
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Set goals for your next assignment based on these comments
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Reassess and improve your writing process
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