Center for Writing and Learning

Graduate Writing Assistance

The Oregon State University Center Writing Center serves graduate students at every phase of their program. For graduate students who are working on their course work and producing seminar papers, essays, and other course-related writing, we provide traditional one-on-one writing center sessions with “lead” writing assistants. For graduate students working on their proposals, theses, or dissertations, we provide support via the Graduate Writers' Studio.

One-on-One Sessions

Although we are not content experts, we can help with writing issues including brainstorming, argument development, organization, clarity of expression, and citation/documentation.To schedule an appointment for course-related writing assistance, contact the Writing Center at 541-737-5640.

We will not schedule one-on-one sessions for long-term writing projects such as theses, dissertations, or thesis/dissertation proposals. For these long-term projects, the Graduate Writers' Studio is your best solution.

Graduate Writers' Studio

For graduate students who are working on their proposals, theses, or dissertations, a different approach is needed, one that lends itself to supporting and sustaining long-term projects. Rather than having a writing assistant work with a graduate student in continuous one-on-one sessions, the Writing Center offers the weekly Graduate Writers’ Studio.  These writing groups are facilitated by a writing assistant but are largely focused on groups of up to six graduate students.  The members of a group read each other’s work and discuss issues of writing in their disciplines, the conventions of academic writing, organization, thought and writing processes, plagiarism, grammar, documentation, and anything else that concerns graduate writers.  The act of reading and responding to other students’ writing encourages the participants to develop skills that will benefit them in their own writing and help them long after the project is completed.

The purpose of the Graduate Writers’ Studio is two-fold.  The group encourages graduate students to keep writing at a regular pace to avoid procrastination and to produce the best possible thesis/dissertation.  For this reason, all participants in the Studio must be writing at the time they join the group and will be responsible for bringing new work for the group to read.  The second purpose of the Studio is to encourage students to learn to read rhetorically in order to produce higher quality writing.  To achieve this goal, participants will read up to fifteen pages of one group member’s work in preparation for the weekly meeting.  During the Studio, the group members will ask questions and make suggestions while discussing the reading with the writer.  Over the course of the time spent in the group, participants will learn more about their particular writing practices and their disciplinary conventions.  The ultimate goal of the group is that members will learn to be better readers and writers while producing a well-formed and well-written proposal, thesis, or dissertation.

For information about how to join a Graduate Writers' Studio group, contact Mattie Davenport.

Brown-bag Talks and Group Workshops

Dennis Bennett and Robin Pappas facilitate several brown-bag talks throughout the year on topics specific to graduate thesis projects. In addition to common issues such as writer's block, idea generation and organization, and revision strategies, our most popular topic is the Review of Literature. Please check the calendar of events on the front page of this website for information about the dates, locations, and topics for our upcoming workshops.

Resource Referral

Students develop their expertise as writers via a number of methods, some of which are self-directed (e.g., thesis-writing guides and online reference materials), and others which are socially oriented, such as facilitated writing groups. At the Writing Center, we strive to support graduate writers by listening to the kinds of challenges they confront in their work and suggesting possible opportunities and additional resources that address those challenges.

Please contact Dennis or Robin to learn more about additional resources for graduate student writers.