Reflection Paper On Writing Center

Writing Center Observation #1 I visited the Writing Center on Tuesday, September 27 to work on a book reflection paper for my religion elective. I met with Caitlin Ellis (Caity). When I arrived, Caity greeted me by name, which I appreciated because it demonstrated that she had prepared for our appointment by taking the time to read over the appointment notes. Caity set the initial tone for our appointment through her friendly greeting. Although I was a little nervous at first (I always am when sharing my writing with new people), Caity created an open space for learning in which we could both be confident in our respective roles as writer and reader. We both focused on the task at hand and were able to candidly share our thoughts about the paper in front of us. Physically, Caity

I know a lot of “tips and tricks” that I can use for good writing, but sometimes I get stressed out or simply don’t take enough time to remember to use them. Spending time with Caity helped me to slow down and focus on the basics for a while, rather than the complex content of my essay. One of the areas we talked about was sentence length variation. I have a tendency to use long, detailed sentences in my writing. I can usually construct these sentences correctly using commas, semi-colons, or colons. I do not, however, always take time to remember who my readers will be. Caity addressed this by pointing out a particularly long sentence in my paper. Once she highlighted this sentence for me, I figured out what her point was fairly quickly and started looking for ways to break up the sentence. Caity added to my repertoire of “tips and tricks” by explaining that while detail is not a bad thing, it can confuse the reader. As I went through my paper looking for sentence length problems, Caity had me consider whether the subject of the sentence changed as the sentence continued or whether my reader was likely to be confused by the