Log in for full access.
a Librarian
a Librarian
About the Writing Center
Whether you are a veteran English major, a Philosophy graduate student, or a first year pre-med, the USF Writing Center offers assistance to any student who wants to improve his or her writing skills. Our services are free and available to enrolled students, faculty members, and active staff.
- Regular advance-scheduled, one-on-one consultations are 50 minutes long.
- Students are welcome to make two appointments per week (but never back to back).
- Writing Center Consultants are graduate students from the Departments of English, World Languages, and Communication, all of whom have been writing instructors in addition to working as center consultants.
Tweet to Stay Focused
Do you ever find yourself zoning out while trying to finish your homework? It’s easy to lose focus while trying to get work done outside of the classroom. It’s even harder if that work is in a subject that doesn’t hold our interest. Researchers at Lock Haven University recently completed a study where they asked students to Tweet about the class outside of class time. They found that students stay ...more
Writing a Conference Proposal
Many upperclassmen and graduate students strive to take part in conferences and show others the work we’ve been doing. Conferences are a great opportunity to bounce ideas off other experts in your field and get ideas for developing your work. Applying for a conference, however, can be daunting work and many are quite competitive. If you’ve never applied to speak at a conference before, ...more
Trying to Avoid Colloquial Language and Slang
“Like, you know, that guy over there told me to say hi.” “Guys and girls! Everyone look here!” “I have to take my kid sister to school, then we can hang out. Slang is everywhere. When we use it in everyday life to communicate with friends informally, it’s usually fine. In fact, sounding too formal around our friends is kinda weird. Slang, or colloquial language – to use the formal term – is not ...more
Why Cite?
Why do we bother citing someone elses work in our papers? Most people’s initial answer is so they don’t get caught plagiarizing. While that is certainly true, there are other more important reasons we cite that improve what we write. When we conduct research, we need to cite our work to show where we found information. This gives credit to the original writer of the text you are using to support y ...more
Support the USF Writing Center
The Writing Center appreciates the support of the community and hopes to increase its ability to reach out to students, staff and faculty at USF. Please consider making a donation to help us continue our mission. Each year, the USF Writing Center supports the efforts of students and faculty in all disciplines at any stage of their writing process. The Writing Center conducted a survey of 2,387 s ...more
Dissertation Library Guide
The 2012 Dissertation Forum was a great success! Thank you to all who joined us. It was a great time for networking, sharing ideas and learning how to make it through the dissertation process. Many of our presenters offered to share their materials with us. If you weren’t able to join us, or would like a refresher on the materials, please check out the Dissertation Workshop Library Guide! more
Writing a Personal Statement
Whether you’re applying to graduate school, medical school, or that awesome scholarship, chances are you’ll have to develop a personal statement to submit with your application. Personal statements go by many names – statements, letters of intent, statements of research – and is often considered to be one of the most difficult genres of writing. Why is a personal statement so difficult to write? ...more
Congratulations to Our Graduates!
Writing Center Graduates Roni Browdy, MA, English Jason Carabelli, MA, English Kristen Gay, MA, English Micah Jenkins, MA, World Languages Gloria Munoz, MFA, English Melissa Nye, MA, World Languages Kate Pantelides, PhD, English Claire Stephens, MFA, English Katie Waddell, MA, English Kimberly Karalius, MFA, English more