The Writing Center

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.

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. During summer session, please request an appointment via our appointment request web form.

The Writing Center is committed to providing the best possible service for graduate students. Until further notice, we are reinstating individual sessions for graduate students who are completing theses and dissertations. We are able to do so due to new funding that has been provided by the Graduate School, supplementing our ongoing support from Academic Affairs and Academic Success and Student Engagement.  In order to better assess the quality of our graduate student support services, we will ask all graduate students who use the Writing Center to fill out a brief survey in addition to our usual post-session evaluation survey. This survey will ask students to provide us with information regarding their home department and where they are in their program of study.

Additionally, it has always been Writing Center policy to schedule graduate student appointments with graduate or "lead" writing assistants only. Since drop-in hours are staffed by our entire staff, and not just graduate and/or lead writing assistants, we cannot accept graduate student for drop-in appointments.

Thank you for your understanding. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dennis Bennett.

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.