New Year holiday

Photo © Melissa Wolff.

The Writing Center will be closed on Thursday, January 1, 2015, for New Year's Day. We will return on January 2.

Winter holidays closing

Snowflake image by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (public domain).

Walden University's Writing Center will be closed on Thursday, December 25, 2014, for the winter holidays. Have a safe and wonderful time off!

Preview of new website

Photo © Rob Brewer.

This past year, the Writing Center staff has been busy reorganizing the website in preparation for a move to a new content management system. We are excited to announce that the new website is now ready for preview and will officially launch in early 2015.

Come take a look at the new site!: http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter.

Thanksgiving holiday closing

Photo © Ben Franske.

The Writing Center will be closed on Thursday and Friday this week, November 27 and 28, 2014. Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday!

Turnitin maintenance and intermittent downtime

From the Turnitin Team:

Turnitin service may be intermittently unavailable during a scheduled maintenance period on Saturday, October 11, 2014, from 7 AM to 11 AM U.S. Pacific Time.

Short grammar videos on YouTube

We have three new playlists in YouTube of short grammar videos--anywhere from 1-6 minutes in length:

• Mastering the Mechanics: This playlist focuses on the basics parts of English grammar, giving students a foundation to write clear and grammmatically-correct sentences. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM7NbPzilFBeBafhRyphwOhfT1oIj1nQx
•  This playlist features short videos that explain how to put together clauses and phrases to create clear and engaging sentences. Passive voice, parallelism, subject-verb agreement, and using "I" is also discussed. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM7NbPzilFBdtMvcbv6mtiE84gnOLNpwZ
• Engaging Writing: This playlist gives students tools for creating concise, engaging writing, including how students can use syntax, punctuation, and sentence structure to create variety. Transitions, active voice, and reducing wordiness are also discussed. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM7NbPzilFBfORPKFgnd37oejRMw8Hd-H

Playlists can be accessed from the links above or via the WUWritingCenter home page: https://www.youtube.com/user/WUWritingCenter ​

Turnitin and Microsoft Word information now on Academic Skills Center's website

Information about Turnitin and Microsoft Word is now on the Academic Skills Center's website and will be removed from the Writing Center's site.

LibGuides content downtime on Monday, August 18, 2014

Our LibGuides system for course guides and the toolbox for faculty will undergo an upgrade beginning at 7:00am CST on Monday, August 18, and those pages will be unavailable between 7am and 11am CST. Please watch this space for updates on Monday August 18, and if you have questions, please e-mail us at wcwebsite@waldenu.edu.

Academic Skills Center's website

We are happy to share that the Academic Skills Center (ASC) now has a website with information about their resources: http://academicskills.waldenu.edu

Check out the site and find out how ASC can help you with math, statistics, software, and other academic skills!

July Fourth holiday

The Writing Center will be closed for the July 4th holiday. Have a safe and relaxing time off!

Photograph by Matthew Straubmuller. Fireworks above the White House in Washington, DC. Creative Commons license.

Note about our services

Note about our services: All Writing Center services, with the exception of the capstone Form and Style Review, are optional and supplemental, and they are not connected to a Walden approval process. Our role is to support writers and review writing, but we do not determine whether students can move forward in a course or degree program.

Memorial Day holiday

The Writing Center is closed on Monday, May 26, 2014, for the Memorial Day holiday. We will resume services on Tuesday.

U.S. Army Col. Carolyn Jones prepares to place some rose petals into the reflecting pool at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial’s annual Memorial Day observance, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., May 26, 2008. Photograph by the U.S. federal government (public domain).

Walden Capstone Writing Community

The Writing Center hosts a private online writing community exclusively for Walden students in the proposal and final stages of writing the capstone (dissertation, doctoral study, or project study). For more information about the community and a link to the survey students fill out to request an invitation, please visit this page: http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/1599.htm

Video playlists on grammar basics, sentences, and engaging writing

We have three new playlists in YouTube of short grammar videos--anywhere from 1-6 minutes in length:

• Mastering the Mechanics: This playlist focuses on the basics parts of English grammar, giving students a foundation to write clear and grammmatically-correct sentences. 
• Structuring Sentences: This playlist features short videos that explain how to put together clauses and phrases to create clear and engaging sentences. Passive voice, parallelism, subject-verb agreement, and using "I" is also discussed. 
• Engaging Writing: This playlist gives students tools for creating concise, engaging writing, including how students can use syntax, punctuation, and sentence structure to create variety. Transitions, active voice, and reducing wordiness are also discussed. 

Playlists can be accessed from the links above or via the WUWritingCenter home page: https://www.youtube.com/user/WUWritingCenter

myPASS scheduling system launched + Tutoring tab now renamed Paper Reviews

Big news in the Writing Center today!

We have launched our new myPASS scheduling system for paper review appointments. Please check out our updated Paper Reviews page for information on how to use the new system.

We have also renamed the Tutoring tab (main menu button at the top of the page) to Paper Reviews.

Website changes in March and April

The end of April in Minneapolis comes with slushy snowfall. Warm up with this latest update on changes to the Writing Center website! Look for some exciting new developments in the next month, too.

New content

• Dayna Herrington joined our staff at the beginning of March, and I have added her bio to the Meet Our Staff page.
• Writing course guides for selected undergraduate courses are now listed on our website.
• Writing course guides for selected graduate courses are now listed on our website.
• Our Administrative Writing Assistants bios have been updated to reflect added staff and to remove those who have graduated--CONGRATULATIONS!
• The Walden Capstone Writing Community now has an information page on the website.

A look back at the month.

We're upgrading the news feed on the main page of our website! This feed will continue to include Writing Center announcements such as holiday closings, technical issues with our various instructional platforms, and updates to services.

The Writing Center is closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Another month, another holiday! The Writing Center is closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 20, 2014. We will resume services and return e-mails on Tuesday.