Issue 5, Spring 2010
Directors' Note
Although the Writing Studio was originally conceived as a place for undergraduates to work on their writing, we have always made its services available to graduate students. Recently, we have been able to redouble our efforts in bringing writing support and programming to the graduate student community. Graduate students can now schedule a series of extended appointments each semester; these special sessions allow consultant and client to work through longer pieces of writing than would be possible in regular 50-minute appointments. Graduate students also have the option of meeting with the same graduate consultant for all of their appointments, so that consultants and writers can engage in an ongoing conversation.
In addition to expanding our consultation services, the Writing Studio is offering a number of programs for graduate students this year. In October, we facilitated two workshops in coordination with the Graduate School, one for dissertation writers and one for those preparing to propose their dissertation projects. This semester, and in partnership with the Center for Science Communication in the Department of Medicine, we will facilitate a workshop series on the first Friday of each month on reporting primary research. We also will revisit the concerns of dissertation writers by hosting a revision workshop for them on February 20.
Although we are delighted to be casting our net wider, we maintain our focus on undergraduate writing. On March 28, we will host the second annual Undergraduate Writing Symposium (see Ariel Clemons’ article on last year’s event). We continue to pursue innovative ways of helping first-year students transition to college-level writing as well as helping advanced students with projects like scholarship applications and senior honors theses. It remains our mission to support writers at all levels and in all disciplines, and we look forward to growing our services for Vanderbilt’s graduate and undergraduate students.