Writers at the Center

Texas Christian University

Volume 17, Number 1

Spring 2014

Contact Information:
Phone: 817-257-7221
Email: writingctr@tcu.edu

Main Center 419 Reed

8:00 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Monday - Friday
Phone: 817-257-7221

Library Annex

6 p.m. - 9:00 p.m

Sunday - Thursday
Phone: 817-257-6520

To make an
appointment via our
website:
http://wrt.tcu.edu

Online Help?

Email and attach document:

writingctr@tcu.edu

Like us on Facebook!

Facebook.com/WlAdmsCenterForWriting

The Big 2-5

his Academic year marks the 25th

anniversary of the W.L. Adams
Center for Writings service at TCU.
Originally, we were the brainchild of TCU
administrators who believed that TCU
students across all colleges and disciplines
needed access to individualized attention
in an interdisciplinary writing center.
Our doors first opened to TCU students
in August 1988, when the Union Pacific
Foundation pledged $240,000 to create a
campus-wide resource for students seeking
help with writing across all disciplines and
colleges. In 1993 TCU named our facility
in honor of Union Pacifics visionary CEO
William L. Adams, legendary oilman and
geologist who believed passionately that
good writing skills empower people.
Growth has been steady; nearly every
year we break our own records in the
number of TCU students we serve. Our
campus-wide reach is now greater than
originally envisioned, with students and
faculty from nearly every discipline seeking feedback from our consultants.
In 2006, we expanded our reach by

opening the Graduate Writing Center;

we now work with grad students and
faculty on long projects such as these,
dissertations, submissions for publication, and book manuscripts. We also
work intensively with grad students as a
co-sponsor of TCUs annual Dissertation
Boot Camp.
We also boast one of the best facilities
in the country devoted to a university
writing center. For the use of students,
we have ten computers, including Macs
and PCs, and a Pharos printing station. We also have a conference room
equipped with state-of-the-art technology for group consultations and meetings
with faculty from various colleges and
departments.
Whats next for us? the center plans to
continue to assist students and faculty
from all discipline with all types of writing projects. In addition to supporting
writing emphasis teachers through the
Writing Associates program and in-class
workshops, we hope to play an active
role in the Academy of Tomorrows

Peer Consultants & Staff Page 2

Directors Note
Page 4

Events Page 3

Table of Contents:

Page 1

Peer and
Graduate
Consultants
13- 14
Amanda Aguilar
Tyler Araki
Larisa Asaeli
Malcom Baker
Zack Bellenger
Bailey Betik
Aaron Boyle

Want to be a
Peer Writing
Consultant?

We are looking for mature, responsible

TCU students with strong writing skills
to work as peer writing consultants at the
William L. Adams Writing Center in 419
Reed Hall or in our Library Annex. Peer
Consultants typically work ten hours per
week and earn at least minimum wage.
We are actively seeking graduate students
to serve as peer writing consultants in
our Graduate Writing Center. All TCU
students who are interested in applying
should email Dr. Steve Sherwood at
s.sherwood@tcu.edu. Qualified applicants will be asked to provide a writing
sample and at least one faculty recommendation. If we dont have any immediate
openings, we will be happy to add qualified
applicants to our list of potential future
peer writing consultants.

Elle Carnley

Meet the
Staff
Dr. Steven Sherwood
(Director)
Contact:
419F Reed Hall
s.sherwood@tcu.edu
Phone: 817-257-6536

Ms. Cheryl
Carithers

(Assistant Director)

Contact:
419G Reed Hall
c.carithers@tcu.edu
Phone: 817-257-6534

Kellie Coppola
Dr. Bridgette
Copeland

Beth Hessel

Contact:
419F Reed Hall

Liz Leach

B.Copeland@tcu.edu
Phone: 817-257-6537

Caisey Robertson
Maghan Roe
David Shaver
Bryan Smith
John Toulouse
Andrew Upton

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Our Belief

The consultants at TCUs Center for

Writing believe that the best writing
instruction occurs in an atmosphere of
honesty, consideration, trust, and confidentiality. We respect and appreciate
each students individual learning style
and learning needs. If we can help you
accommodate your unique needs, please
let us know. We seek to help our clients
learn, understand, and meet the American
English writing norms and standards appropriate to their academic disciplines and
writing needs, and to do so in an ethical
and responsible manner.

Dr. Amy
Hermanson

Contact:
419G Reed Hall

a.k.hermanson@tcu.edu

Phone: 817-257-6535

Ms. Cynthia
Shearer
(Assistant Director)
Contact:
419H Reed Hall
c.shearer@tcu.edu

Phone: 817-257-6539

Texas
Association of
Creative Writing
Teachers
Meets at TCU

On September 26-28, the W.L. Adams

Center for Writing hosted the annual
meeting of the Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers (TACWT) in the
spacious third floor of the Brown-Lupton University Union. Keynote speaker
for the conference was critically acclaimed Young Adult iction writer T.A.
Barron, author of the popular Heartlight
Saga and Merlin Saga novels. Barron, a
childhood friend
of Dr. Steve Sherwood, made TCU
his first stop on the
promotional book
tour for his new
novel, Atlantis Rising and presented
Sherwood with the
first signed copy
of the book. This
event, sponsored by the Cecil H. and
Ida Green Honors Fellowship, attracted
many TCU students as well as local fans
who waited in line to get signed copies
of Barrons books.
TACWT participants, many of whom
edit the states variouus literary magazines, gave expert advice on teaching
and publishing creative writing via
conventional print-based media, and in
new media multimodal forms. Other
sessions covered baseball, creativity,
feminist fictions, and white trash
literature. In all, the conference offered
a full slate of twenty-three sessions over
three days, and included professors reading poetry, fiction, or essays from their
own creative works in progress. TCU
English Department creative writing
professors Dr. Nathaniel OReilly, Mr.
Matthew Pitt, Dr. Chantel Langlinais,
and Dr. Joddy Murray also participated.
For more information about next
years conference, contact TACWT president Cheryl Clements at Blinn College at
979-209-7358.

Dissertation
Boot Camp

On August 4-7, 2014 we will co-sponsor, with the Office of Graduate Studies
and Research and GEMS, TCUs third
annual Dissertatio and Thesis Boot Camp.
This four-day event is a series of intensive daily writing workshops designed
to help graduate students jump-start the
writing process. Registration is capped
at 17 participants, with a wait list of 7, to
enable writers to receive individual attention, including a personal writing skills
inventory. Writing a dissertation or thesis
is a life-shaping event, and TCU offers
this special support and encouragement
to those entering this crucial phase of
graduate study.
Dissertation Boot Camp typically
convenes in our conference room in 419
Reed Hall at 9 a.m. Graduate students
usually arrive with lattes, laptops, and lots
of questions to be answered. The daily
schedule is a lively mix of guided writing
activities, interactive sessions with faculty,
working lunches, and at least three hours
of individual writing per day. Most daily
sessions run until 3 p.m., with another
option for students to write in our facility
until 5 p.m. Participants get the benefit
of some timely tips and seasoned advice
from some of TCUs graduate faculty
across many disciplines. They also make
contact with others who are approaching the same important academic hurdle
themselves. Topic range from motivation,
organizatinal skills, time management,
and how the drafting process for dissertations works a bit differently from other
academic projects. This past summer the
2013 Dissertation and Thesis Boot Camp
featured such guest speakers as Dr. Brenda
Davis, History; Dr. Jeff Coffer, Chemistry.
Faculty speakers for the 2014 session will
be announced later this spring.
For more information, contact Center for
Writing Director Dr. Steve Sherwood at
writingctr@tcu.edu.

Tony Burgess
Award
for
Environmental
Writing

We are proud to sponsor, along wit

TCU Press, the Tony Burgess Environmental Writing
Award, which will be
given to a TCU student this spring who
embodies the principles and ethics of environmental stewardship, in keeping with
the philosophy of one
of TCUs most beloved
professors. Applicants
submit work from any
genre; judges will consider fiction, poetry, drama, and non-fiction. There is no
word limit, and the prize id $150. The
criteria for selection of the winning text
will be based on both topical relevance
and overall descriptive excellence. But
since we REALLY want the teachings
of Professor Burgess to endure here,
we will also consider prose works that
demonstrate the principle of wabi-sabi,
or the beauty that lies in imperfection.
Burgess retired in May 2013, and

moved to Alaska. A former participant

in the Biosphere project, he taught
courses in environmental science at
TCU for many years. The winner will
be announced at the 2014 Creative
Writing Awards ceremony, to be held
on April 22, 2014 in the Kelly Alumni
Center. Other awards we sponsor are
the Margaret-Rose Marek Multimedia
award, and the William L. Adams Writing Center Prize for the best essay about
rhetoric and composition.

Page 3

Directors Notes: Steve Sherwood

or a quarter of the century, the staff

of the William L. Adams Center
for Writing has had the privilege
of working closely with TCUs students,
faculty, and staff on their writing projects.
In our first year of operation, 1988-1989,
the center provided just 1,800 tutorials.
But i discovered a few weeks ago at the
South Central Writing Centers Association Conference, our center delivered
as many tutorials (8,900) during the
201-2013 academic year as Oklahoma
State Universitys writing center, which
serves a student body of 24,000. Although
numbers do not tell the whole story, they
do indicate that over the years a growing number of TCU students, staff, and
faculty members have found it useful to
get feedback on their writing from our
professional and peer writing consultants.
We hope they will continue to do so in
the decades t come, and we thank those
among the faculty and administration
who, in understanding the power and
importance of the written word, have
supported our work.
Two people who contributed their
wisdom and energy to the center for
a number of years have left us. Jeanne
Rose came on board in 2002 as a parttime professional consultant, bringing to
the job a fine eye (backed by a classical

Marie Laine left behind a legacy of

twenty-four years of part-time service as
perhaps our most popular professional
consultant. We will miss her kindness and
the baked goods she sometimes brought
with her. Both Ms. Rose and Ms. Laine
have begun well-earned second retirements. Meanwhile, weve added another
part-time professional, Dr. Arch Mayfield,
a long -time full professor of English at
Wayland Baptist University. Dr. Mayfield
brings to the work not only a wealth of
experience and knowledge but also a great
sense of humor.
Several of our graduate and undergraduate peer consultants are about to leave us
to start their professional lives or to seek
more education. Three of our graduate student consultants, Meghan Rose (English,
Ph.D. candidate), Larisa Asaeli (Enlish,
Ph.D. candidate), and Josh Toulouse (Masters of Divinity) are (or soon will be) on
the job market. Senior Liz Leach, Caisey
Robertson, David Shaver, and Zach Bellenger will graduate this semester. Theyve
all done wonderful work for the center. We
will miss them, but we also wish then bon
voyage and hope their work here has given
them valuable experiences and skills that
will transfer to their new paths.
For the second year, the center has
partnered with the Office of Graduate

the center has partnered with the Office

of Graduate Research to offer a thesis and
dissertation boot camp. A dozen students
from psychology,
chemistry, education, nursing,
communication,
history, and
English met for
a week in August
to get a jump
start on writing
their projects
(and to receive
advice from
experienced
mentors). This year, the mentors included
Dr. Brenda Davis, Dr. Jeff Coffer, Mr. Kerry
Bouchard, Dr. Bridgette Copeland, and Dr.
Bonnie Melhart.
Finally, we thank the faculty members
who participated in this years Writing
Associates Program: Dr. Mark Dennis, Dr.
Sharon Canclini, Dr. Gina Alexander, Dr.
Robin Griffith, Dr. Chris Sawyer, and Dr.
Pam Frable. We look forward to continuing to support TCU faculty members
efforts to teach writing in the disciplines.

-Steve Sherwood

Writing Center Code of Eth ics

For twenty-five years now we have offered tutorials conducted by trained, experienced writing consultants, happy to assist
you with your writing needs, whether you are student, staff, or faculty. We can assist at any stage of your writing project,
from topic generation through organizing your ideas and documenting your sources. We serve as a friendly audience to offer
feedback and suggestions on essays; research papers; book reviews; reports; theses; dissertations; book manuscripts; internship, graduate, medical, or law school application essays; and cover letters and resumes. We are an instructional service, not
a proofreading or editing service, but we will provide suggestions on identifying and correcting common punctuation or
grammatical errors. To encourage independence in undergraduate writers, we limit our input to three tutoring sessions on a
particular project.

William L. Adams Center for Writing

419 Reed Hall
Phone: 817-257-7221
Email: writingctr@tcu.edu

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