Sometimes after your first year, it feels like the universe stops offering you free workshops, free pens and free advice. I beg to differ.
I mean it’s not like the Career Centre disappears into the abyss as you approach your third year (in fact anything but!), and the same applies for everything else offered on campus.
One of my personal favourites is the writing centre, but for reasons other than the obvious. While I love that I can flesh out my idea with someone – who for example may not be a friend that I could get off topic midway with - it’s also a wonderful thing to make sure your ideas are organized. Even with the papers that are making you so excited, it’s easy to get so wrapped up in your sheer glee that you may not be transitioning as well as you could be.
But the writing centre also offers so much more, and there are key reasons I especially enjoy using it that I didn’t quite realize before.
It keeps you on track
While you can cancel them (warning-demerit points do apply if done a few times!), scheduling an appointment a week before my deadline kick starts my planning. Technically, it forces me to adhere to a deadline that’s actually a week earlier, keeps me from watching the last few episodes of New Girl and ensures that I have a proper draft in hand. I mean you could technically cheat and just bring a very rough outline, but then you’d just be wasting even more time with an appointment that you could get so much more out of.
Tip: As soon as you know when an assignment is due, such as getting it in September and knowing it’s due in November, book your appointment! Appointments often fill up fast, and this definitely ensures you get a time that works for you.
It forces a plan
An essay is something that requires planning, serious planning. In fact, I had a professor tell me today the average essay should take about 40 hours in total, including all of the time it takes you to research, edit, and so forth. (Personally, the thought of tallying up how long essays take or should take kind of worries me, so I try not to keep it numerical). But by knowing that your deadline is a week earlier, and that it may require you to be somewhere you usually don’t head to on your Tuesday afternoons, it makes you figure out when you’re doing what.
It’s Convenient
Every college offers a writing centre, most often located near your college and more than likely somewhere on campus that doesn’t require a huge trek to get to. Also, having several available on campus can help make the entire process more personal. And actually going to the appointment is as easy as heading to office hours or an extra tutorial session-easy to schedule in your day, and productive.
In simpler words, the Writing Centre not only helps you with your essays, but I found it really improves the entire process, which after a few panicked writing sessions and groggy eyes, I’ve come to learn isn’t so bad.
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