News

The Writing Studio will reopen for the Fall 2014 semester on Wednesday, August 20, and our schedule for the semester is now live online. Thank you to all of our summer patrons! We look forward to seeing you and many new faces in the coming academic year. Read More

Congratulations to the winners of the 2014 Henrietta Hickman Morgan Memorial Award for First-Year Writers! Thanks, too, to all who submitted their work for consideration. This year the Morgan Award committee reviewed over 100 submissions and over 650 pages of writing by Vanderbilt’s first-year students. Read More

Please have nominations in by January 17th, 2014. To nominate a student, please fill out the nomination form on the Undergraduate Writing Symposium Nomination page. Read More

  by Andy Hines English Writing Fellow for Fall 2013, Vanderbilt Writing Studio   Invoking the blank screen and the blinking cursor might as well be the writer’s equivalent of Kurtz’s whisper in Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness”: “The horror! The horror!” Why? They are the new site… Read More

By Megan Minarich (Fall 2009) With the growing trend toward interdisciplinarity in academic settings, one should embrace consulting across the disciplines. Engaging in discourse with someone who is writing in a discipline other than one’s own presents a unique opportunity for growth for both consultants and clients. Consulting across the… Read More

By Jennifer Holt, Katherine Fusco, and Gary Jaeger Writing Studio consultants are trained to be good generalist readers. Many of us have even found ourselves committed to the idea that consultants have a significant advantage in conversation when we lack expertise either about an entire field or about the specific… Read More

By Erin Bradfield, former Graduate Writing Fellow The aroma of burritos, rice, and tortillas wafted down the hallway.  As six o’ clock approached, a group of students gathered at the Writing Studio in preparation for our session.  I had invited Professor Jonathan Neufeld to talk about his writing process over… Read More

By Christina Foran, former Writing Studio Staff (Spring 2009) Its tell-tale symptoms include heaviness in the pit of the stomach, avoidance facilitated by excessive facebook checking, and a mind completely… blank. Diagnosis: writer’s block, more formally known as writing anxiety or apprehension. This distressing emotional state plagues students and professionals… Read More

By Bryn Chancellor (Originally posted Fall 2008) Dr. Robert Baum, M.D., loves the written word. Novels, medical journals of the past centuries, you name it. Of late, he has been reading works by historian Shelby Foote. Like any good book lover, he often asks colleagues and acquaintances what they are… Read More

By Christina Neckles, Former Writing Studio Staff (Originally posted Fall 2008) Fall semesters in the Writing Studio tend to be especially busy. In the first few months of school, motivated first-year students make special efforts to acclimate to the rigors of college-level work and to impress their professors. Bright upperclassmen… Read More