THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF EARTH AND MINERAL SCIENCES

From: Joe Schall, Giles Writer-in-Residence and Writing Tutor

To: All Undergraduates in Earth and Mineral Sciences

Re: Writing Tutoring

EMS Writing Center: 14 DEIKE BUILDING

EMS Writing Center Phone: 863-6077

Joe Schall's e-mail: schall@ems.psu.edu

Fall 2006 Writing Center Hours: see http://www.personal.psu.edu/u3w/Schall.html

The Earth and Mineral Sciences Writing Center

Recognizing the need for effective writing in the sciences and engineering, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences employs me as a full-time writing tutor and writer-in-residence exclusively for EMS students. You are encouraged to visit the Writing Center for help with anything from your paper assignments to your resume. You may visit me at any stage of the writing process, whether planning a paper, revising a draft, or polishing a final product. Each year, hundreds of students from dozens of classes make use of Writing Center services, with some students visiting just a few times and others coming in almost every week. To help guide you through your writing tasks, I've written Style for Students an extensive style manual that you can receive for free in 14 Deike Building just by stopping by.

The Writing Tutor's Role and Your Responsibilities
When visiting the Writing Center, please understand my role as a tutor and recognize your own responsibilities as a writer. A tutor's task is not to edit or rewrite your papers for you as much as it is to help you understand and employ effective writing habits, identify your particular writing needs and patterns, and assist you in honing your own skills. Your responsibility in a tutorial session is to prompt the tutor by articulating your key questions and writing challenges, participate in a discussion about how to improve the product you're working on, and exit the session better equipped to put more work into your writing. The concern is with process as much as product—tutor and student together seek improvement through shared effort. With these ideas in mind, I always make sure that students leave the Writing Center with either an improved product or a plan for starting over on a paper.

Making an Appointment The best way to work with me is by appointment, and you should always plan two days ahead to ensure a place on my schedule. To secure an appointment, simply call or visit the Writing Center during the hours noted at the top of this page. Making appointments by e-mail is acceptable as long as you:
1) plan a few days ahead,
2) do not count on an immediate reply
3) offer me a few different times that you're available so that I can match our schedules, and
4) describe the document we'll be looking at together so I know how much time to allot.
In some cases, I request that students e-mail me documents ahead of time so that I can preview the work we'll be considering, but please allow me to make that request rather than automatically e-mail me a document. You may also use e-mail for quick correspondence such as cancellations, confirmations, or specific questions about writing.