As an academic unit dedicated to teaching, the Writing Center cannot proofread or edit your thesis or dissertation for you. We will, however, teach you to proofread and edit your own work. You should begin coming to the Writing Center well before your thesis or dissertation deadlines so that you will have adequate time to review and make changes to your manuscript.
The Writing Center staff includes faculty and teaching assistants from the Department of English. The Center, located in 016 Memorial Hall, is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters. Please call the Center at 831-1168 for summer, winter, and evening hours. Although appointments are not required, students are encouraged to reserve a time.
Here are some suggestions that will help make your first appointment at the Writing Center more profitable:
- Discuss the conventions of writing in your field with your advisor. How, for example, is it customary to cite references, survey literature, present equations, etc.?
- Find and bring with you to the Writing Center one or two articles from respected journals in yourfield. These articles should be typical examples of writing in your discipline.
- Read the Thesis Manual prepared by the Office of Graduate Studies.
- Know the computer macros that will help you format your document correctly. You can get this information from a visit to the computing center in Smith Hall.
- Pre-check each chapter of your document before coming to the Writing Center. You should look for consistency in the following:
- Tense: Avoid shifting between past and present tense as you move from paragraph to paragraph (or within paragraphs) unless you have a logical reason for doing so.
- Capitalization and Spelling: This is especially important for people's names and technical terms. You cannot rely on your computer's spell checker to find these errors.
- Usage: If English is not your native language, be sure that you have been consistent in how and when you use articles (a and the), prepositions (in, at, of, for, etc.), and idioms. Even if you believe that you do not know all the rules for these things, you should be consistent in how you apply what you do know.
- Citations: After checking with your advisor and the Thesis Manual, choose an appropriate method of documentation and carefully follow its conventions each time you cite a source.
- Mark passages in your chapter where you have specific concerns.
- Bring a list of specific questions you have about your writing.
- Remember that teaching you how to edit and proofread your own writing takes time. You should begin coming to the Writing Center well before thesis or dissertation deadline