Verbal Equinox Spring 2005

Verbal Equinox A WSU Writing Center Publication, Fall 2005 Verbal Equinox Fall 2005 Staff Editor/Layout Samantha Balaich Copy Editor Tyler Whitby Printing Stacie Hicks Distribution Mario Chard Web Page Katie Van Ausdal Writing Center Coordinator Claire Hughes
Coordinator’s Corner	Developing the Tools Needed for Tomorrow
by Claire Hughes Writing Center Coordinator Welcome to Verbal Equinox! In this issue, five talented tutors have addressed writing topics we hope will be useful to you. In serving students, we appreciate our continued connection with and support from departments, such as English, History, Geography, Women’s Studies, Communications, Botany, Nursing, and Health Sciences. You have welcomed us into your classrooms and encouraged your students to visit the Writing Center for feedback and support from tutors. In this issue, we continue the fall tradition of publishing tutor articles on subjects we hope will support student writers as well as teachers who encourage writing in their coursework. We express our gratitude to Dr. Scott Rogers who has vigorously trained our newest tutors to be quick of mind and light on their feet in adjusting to the various writing needs of their fellow students as those earnest students learn to navigate academic writing. Tutors have thrived within the rigors of the tutor training class requirements to read, write, and rehearse tutoring best practices. We are glad to be allied with and to be taught and supported by Dr. Rogers. Each year the Writing Center participates in our regional tutoring conference, and this fall, the Rocky Mountain Writing Centers Association resumed its efforts to restructure our eight-state region. The new RMWCA website is up, hosted by USU, and we are currently working to contact member organizations in neighboring states that can absorb and support some of the outlying programs so that we can focus on strengthening our outreach to high school and community writing centers within our purview. The Writing Center continues to thrive under the direction of Carl Porter, who guides and supports our efforts to help tutors succeed as well as to identify best practices and measure our efforts so that we can grow toward more effectively serving more of our student population. It is a mission we take seriously and pursue with creativity and energy. Please enjoy this Verbal Equinox edition, created for you from us this fall season.	by Sam Balaich Editor-in-Chief The school year is definitely underway, and the beautiful oranges, yellows, and reds carpeting the mountains signal the beginning of fall. For many college students, the cool temperatures and falling leaves warn of upcoming writing assignments in classes across campus. In this issue of Verbal Equinox, we hope to ease students’ minds when it comes to writing papers by providing them with the information included in the following articles. Each article featured in this journal focuses on a specific type of writing, or area of the writing process. In addition to this, each article encourages students to step outside of their normal way of thinking in order to grow as writers on and off campus. Writing is perhaps one of the most powerful tools we, as humans, possess. It is amazing to realize how a few characters on a page can inspire a smile halfway around the world from a person the author will probably never meet. University study is the breeding ground for such realizations, so it is important that students get excited about writing now. With this journal, we hope to supplement the professors who ever so elegantly help students to refine the tools they will take with them out into the exciting and adventurous world that awaits them. The Writing Center fully acknowledges its relationship to the Humanities and is very pleased to be a part of this area of the arts. In addition, the tutors who work in the Writing Center are always please to work with students in regards to any format in which they may need to write a paper.
I have rewritten -- often several times -- every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast my erasers. -- Vladimir Nabokov
A Personal . . .What?? by Ammon Nelson Writing Center Tutor So your professor wants you to write a personal essay, huh? Well, remember that contemplation, creativity, and clarity are all essential parts of the generation of a personal essay. Personal essays are just that, personal. The idea is to take some personal experience, from stopping to tie your shoe on a busy sidewalk, to skydiving or watching birds, and link it to some truth or epiphany. Beth Lavine says, “The most effective essay takes a small moment and lets it be a microcosm of a larger truth, a truth that resonates with all, even though the moment is personal to just you” (1). In order to do this you must take time to contemplate the events in your life. Take a minute to think about your experiences and what they could mean. Could the ant you saw trying to carry away an abandoned potato chip be a metaphor for your own struggle to achieve the American dream? Who knows? But the success of your essay will depend on your ability to take these simple experiences and do as Sarah Montante says to do, “…help your reader walk a mile in your shoes” (1). In order for someone to walk a mile in your shoes they need to FEEL what it is like to be in your shoes. Writing creatively is the way to do this. Montante states, “If you give your reader things to see, smell, touch, and hear, he will stick with you longer” (2). The ant trying to carry your potato chip away was not merely an ant carrying a chip but an ant alienated by the society it aimed to help, pulling at a pancake-sized ranch flavored potato chip that left a thin trail of salt and flavored dust near your toe. And as the cool autumn air breezed past your face, you felt hungry, and wanted chips. Suddenly the reader is stuck in your story and wants to know first, what happens with the ant, and second, why in the world you are writing about an ant. Remember also that you want this generous creative description of your experience to be in the beginning of your essay where it can grab the reader. Now that you have had an epiphany about some event in your life, and you have creatively described that experience to the reader, it is critical that you clearly link your personal experience to the rest of your essay. Many believe that the art of the personal essay is to hide their point behind so many over-intellectual ideas that the reader finishes it wondering if the author wrote the essay from an insane asylum in Nebraska. But, the truth is that “You don’t want the reader to know exactly where you are ending up until you get there. On the other hand, don’t veer so far off the track that you leave your reader puzzled” (Montante 2). Basically, you want to make the connections between your story about the ant, and your disillusionment from the American dream, clear and smooth. Remember, “A well constructed essay will have a clear beginning, middle, and end, and will flow seamlessly from one to the next” (Montante 3). One hint in accomplishing this is to maintain the same tone throughout the entire essay. Bentley warns, “Consistency in tone is compelling; leading your reader through your essay with sweet conceptual biscuits only to have them fall hip-deep in a polemical cesspool at essay’s end is counterproductive” (38). So, don’t be intimidated by an assignment to write a personal essay. Remember, the key to a solid, intriguing personal essay is not over-intellectual language or ideas, but contemplation, creativity, and a clear connection between your personal experience and the message you are trying to convey. Works Cited Bentley, Tom. “Crafting a First-Person Essay.” Writer’s Digest. Aug. 2005: 36- 39. Lavine, Beth. “Take Your Experience and Give It a Universal Twist.” Writer. Feb. 2002. Academic Search Premier. 30 June 2005.<http://web22.epnet.com/ citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+E6FF9642%2DC364%2D41E2%2DB…> Montante, Sarah. “Getting Personal: How to Write a Personal Essay That Capture’s a Moment in Your Life – and Your Reader’s Attention.” Literary Cavalcade. Sep. 2004. Academic Search Premier. 30 June 2005. < http://web22.epnet.com/ citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+E6FF9642%2DC364%2D41E2%2DB…> “Write a Personal Essay With Impact.” Literary Cavalcade. Oct. 2003. Academic Search Premier. 30 June 2005. < http://web22.epnet.com/ citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+E6FF9642%2DC364%2D41E2%2DB…>	Quality Sources Make a World of Difference by Tyler Telford Writing Center Tutor The standout problem among writers at the undergraduate level, from English 1010 to upper-division courses in every major, is the inability to find quality sources on which to base a thesis. The good news is this problem is easily fixable. And what is even better, quality sources actually make writing a paper quite easy. Having weak sources is a problem rooted in procrastination and lack of time. (If we are honest, we all know this to be true—myself included.) We think browsing the Internet to find sources will save us an enormous amount of time, as well as saving us that dreaded trip to the library. In reality, we come away with a handful of terrible sources, which provide small blurbs and little info. We read through them, finding a sentence or two that says nothing we didn’t know before. The six pages we have to write starts to look daunting. What, after all, is there to say? Our web-sources say nothing interesting, and therefore why should we? If we could only find those quality sources, writing our paper would be much easier. This is because quality sources are written by people who do have something interesting and important to say. So when you find those articles, create a thesis that interests you, but one which is also related to the ideas in the articles you were able to find. Now you have something meaty enough to fill six pages. Give the writer credit and cite the source, but use it as a beginning for your own ideas. This is not plagiarism. As long as you are careful to thoroughly explain in your paper which ideas are whose, where you got them, and where your own ideas begin—you are just fine. We are learning to become scholars, and as such no one expects us to base our paper on an idea so groundbreaking in its originality that it is ours alone, without aid from previous scholarship. Ideally our papers synthesize a group of sources. The synthesis is our own original ideas, commenting on and connecting our foundation of sources. This is what makes the paper your own—it is not that you have read The Sun Also Rises and found something no one in the world ever has. Now, for the second part, where do we get these quality sources? The best place to find sources that will supply you with enough fodder to write a long paper is an up-to-date journal. This answer may seem obvious, but we students rarely use them. We imagine that going through journals would take an enormous amount of reading, requiring us to make temporary house and home of the library, never to be seen for an entire weekend. There is a simple way to avoid this. Find just one article, and use its works cited page. Have you ever taken the time to read through an article’s bibliography? It is worth your time. In the ten minutes it takes to read through it, you will find at least twenty relevant sources. And it gets even better. The works cited page in a professional article usually comes with comments by the author. These comments will actually tell you what topic connects a group of articles, what whose stance is, and then list several sources. If you are willing to go into the library and browse through the journals, or use their e-journal database (which contains 24,151 titles), you will save yourself a lot of time in the long run. When you find a good article with a good bibliography, all you have to do is track down the sources. And once you have those sources, you will have enough information to get started on your six blank pages. Writing your paper will be so easy, it won’t be a question of what to put in, but what to leave out.

Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper, not eternal bronze: let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes. --Jacques Barzon

Ideas Are Everywhere
by Gregory Sawyer
Writing Center Tutor

Writing an argumentative essay is never easy. The research alone can be staggering, and once compiled, the writer needs to be objective and break down the research into points that can be easily summed up. The writer must be concerned about having a strong thesis statement and supporting conclusion. The main body of the paper must demonstrate points that support the thesis and give examples toward the argument being made. Then there are issues of grammar, prose, style, and pertinence that the writer needs to consider. Even the works cited page can be a pain in the neck. No one really memorizes how to properly cite every kind of source. All things considered, these issues merely pale in comparison to one nagging dilemma: what to write about.

Whatever the topic is going to be, it must be shaped into the form of an argument. In argumentative essays, writers are making a claim. So they must be careful that whatever they choose, the topic is neither too narrow nor too broad. If the topic is too narrow, then content may be difficult to generate. If it is too broad, writers may end up biting too big a chunk and deviating from the original thesis.

For declared majors, this dilemma may not be as daunting. Since they know what they want to study, deciding on issues to write about is narrowed down by these factors: they know what they’re interested in, what they’re passionate about, what they’re good at, and even what they’re experienced in.

For undeclared majors, however, students may not be sure of those factors and will have trouble in English classes deciding what to write. Contrivances tend to occur in papers written by authors who are not interested in their topics. So how can people who are uncertain approach this problem?

Current events are a start. The world is a tumultuous place to say the least, and one can get ideas simply by listening to the news. Start with the regular informative news. If that isn’t thought provoking enough, the opinionated news columns and programs are loaded with heated debates. The good ones will even effectively lay down the pros and cons of an issue, giving a writer lots of ideas regarding which side of the issue to take. Lots of controversial debates fill the news all the time, but some of these topics have been driven into the ground, and choosing a fresh topic to put before the teacher is a good idea.

If this approach isn’t helping to formulate ideas, then the writer can look to oneself for guidance. Students’ being undeclared, doesn’t mean they don’t have interests and hobbies. Surely people who enjoy cooking have often wondered about where the food comes from and how it is processed. There are many ethical, moral, and environmental issues surrounding the food industry: genetically engineered food, methods of raising cattle, excessive farming of the oceans. Students who enjoy hiking are likely concerned about trail conservation. Do trails have enough protection? Do they need more?

If the student’s biggest hobby is writing itself, a multiplicity of arguable topics present themselves: how best to teach writing, the validity of writing as an academic process, writing as a form of communicating, or even whether or not writing is a natural process.

Whether it’s sports, movies, music, or computers, any given thing or idea that interests a student is always going to have topics that surround it. Starting with a single hobby or interest as a point of reference gives way to the externalities that surround it, and this should help the writer come up with compelling arguments to write about.

Our Contributing Authors
Visit this link for an additional article on APA format: APA Format Not as Daunting as It May Seem
by Jesse Dragonheart
Writing Center Tutor

Tyler Telford is an English major. He spends his winters snowboarding, and his summers firefighting. He also loves to rock climb, and he thinks that everyone should definitely see the movie Donnie Darko. This is Tyler’s third semester as a tutor in the WSU Writing Center; during this time, Tyler has accomplished the status of Certified Master Tutor.

Ammon Nelson is a Creative Writing major. He enjoys M&M’s, Modern/Contemporary literature, basketball, some video games, and boxing. He thorougly enjoys eating chicken and beef at any given time of the day. This is Ammon’s third semester as a tutor in the WSU Writing Center, and he has earned his Master Tutor Certification.

Jesse Dragonheart is an Elementary Education major. Her hobbies and interests include bodybuilding, art, crochet, and music. She is very proud of her dog, Marty, who has recently published a children’s book entitled, When I Grow Up. This is Jesse’s third semester as a tutor in the WSU Writing Center, and she is also a Certified Master Tutor.

Gregory Sawyer is a Political Science major. He loves reading, hiking, cooking, golfing, and writing. His favorite holiday is Halloween, and he loves this creepy time of year. He wants everyone to call him the “office dullard.” This is Greg’s first semester as a tutor in the WSU Writing Center, and he is currently training to become certified through CRLA.

Samantha Balaich is a Physics major. She spends her time playing the french horn, writing, learning about airplanes, studying physics, and being with friends. She loves everything that is Irish, hopes to one day live in Ireland, and she hopes to one day be a fluid physicist. This is Sam’s third semester as a tutor in the WSU Writing Center, and she is a Certified Master Tutor.

Claire Hughes is the Writing Center Coordinator, and every single tutor is her favorite. While her background is in English Literature and Sociology, she has a healthy respect for all there is to know and for those who strive to know more of it. She delights in the thriving, evolving efforts of Academic Support Services & Programs to support student success.

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