essay by Donghyun Kang
Are you tearing your hair out now? I can see your situation. Maybe you have a writing assignment and the due date is coming soon, but you haven’t even stared it yet. Why don’t you do it as the way I often do? My advice to you is: First book in the UWC, and then start your writing! The reservation can give you time limit, so you can much more concentrate on your assignment.
First, open you laptop immediately and punch the address: writingcenter.tamu.edu in the address window. It appears the UWC’s web page, and you will find ‘Make an Appointment’. Please click the box, and then click the quick link to make an appointment for a consultation. Let’s click ‘Continue’ and type in your Net ID and Password. (Don’t worry about this one. If you enroll in ELI, you will get your own Net ID and Password.)
If you typed in your ID and Password correctly, you will see the sentence ‘How can we help you?’ There are two types of sessions that are provided by the UWC, and those are ‘In Person’ and ‘Online Submission’. I don’t have an experience using ‘Online Submission’, so I want to recommend that you use the ‘In Person’ way. This is because you can discuss your writing with a consultant in person and work face to face with them for 45 minutes in each session. Anyway, let’s complete your reservation. Click the green box labeled ‘Evans Library’, and then the blue box that says ‘I confirm and agree to these terms.’
The UWC has its own policies and terms. There are more than six rules that you can check on the website, but I would like to emphasize one rule. If you are not able to attend your reserved session for a personal reason, it will be regarded as one missed appointment unless you cancel it. If you have three missed appointments, you will be blocked from booking.
Let’s keep going! Choose a date and time period available and fill out the ‘entry survey’. There are some questions about the purpose of your writing, related courses, focus of the session, things like that. Next, when your answers are finished, submit them and book an appointment. After that, you will receive an e-mail via your email address about the appointment details.
Now, start your writing and try to do your best. If your writing has been done, print out two hard copies for you and your consultant and head to the Evans library. The UWC is located on the second floor in Evans. Tell your name to the front desk and sit on a waiting chair. A consultant who is assigned to your session will call your name and you will go into a room with her or him. First, grab your pen! This means that you should lead your session. You should set up your own direction and be responsible for the content. In other words, you are supposed to be an active writer instead of a passive writer who just listens and writes down a consultant’s advice. Do not expect your consultant to correct your writing as our composition teachers do.
If you need more sessions to revise and edit your writing, you can repeat this procedure. However, the policy says you can attend only one session per a day. On the other hand, if you think that’s enough, read the corrections thoroughly two or three times and try to remember them. Then, open your laptop again and revise and edit by yourself like your composition teachers. In this way, you can remember the corrections well and know them by heart, so you will apply them in other writings afterward.
Please use the UWC as many times as you can! I have heard from my friends that the UWC also can help you prepare your presentation for oral skills class. About this, I will give more information to you after I use the UWC for this purpose later. Welcome, everyone, to the UWC!
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