SHSS Writing Center at NU helped me to write better and stress less about papers.
Let me introduce myself again, since I believe many new readers visited are reading this post. I am Almira. I study biological sciences here at NU. I am graduating this year. Throughout my studies, I regularly visited SHSS Writing Center (WC). They helped me to with:
- My coursework papers
- Motivation letters and CV
- Even emails
an I believe there is even more with which WC can help you with.
Being a biology major, I struggled a lot with writing social sciences and humanaties papers. I took both SHSS 150 and SHSS 250 (not offered anymore) to improve my writing, since it is inevitably necessary skill for all to be able to present ideas and argument. I visited WC in every step of my writing process. They helped me to clearly define my research question based on my ideas, objectively assess the strength of my arguments and the flow of my papers. Step by step I became more solid and clear in my writing and was not anymore afraid of research papers at 300+ level courses.
Writing center also helped me with my CV and motivation letters for scholarship and graduate degree applications. It is not an easy deal to write a solid motivation letter.
It took me about 3-4 weeks and more than 5 WC appointments to write mine. One should check the ideas, flow, the-word choice, the mood and overall understandibility of the motivation letter. It also takes time to find WC professor with whome you have a best match of writing style and ideas. In my case, I checked my motivation letter with several WC professors. If one professor helped me with ideas and arguments, another professor checked for the word choice, while the one helped me to ensure overall flow.
I have some tips for you to make the most of your WC experience:
- It is best to prepare quesitions about your paper beforehand. I know that sometimes it is hard to point out what is wrong with the writing, but it is worth trying.
- Find Your WC professor with whome you have a best match of writing style and ideas.
- Plan your WC appointment ahead, since appotinment slots are taken up very quickly
- Most importantly start early. I know there are some people who can write good papers in one day/night. However, if you hate working under time pressure like me, start earlier :)
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