Located inside Oakland University’s Kresge Library is the Oakland University Writing Center (OUWC), a free service that helps students with any step of the writing process. Whether one is looking for online sessions or in-person help, the OUWC is happy to accommodate all students seeking its services.
The OUWC lends help in many different ways. Staff members can assist students in brainstorming, outlining, revising, citing and editing. The Writing Center is able to assist with a wide variety of assignments, including academic essays, literature reviews, creative writing, cover letters, resumes and personal statements.
Norah Armijo, a junior at OU working at the Writing Center, explains who she would recommend to the OUWC.
“I would definitely recommend it to first-year students because there’s a lot of differences between high school writing and college writing, and it can be difficult to get used to,” Armijo said. “We also have grad student consultants, so I would recommend any grad students that are dealing with dissertations, which can be really unfamiliar, to set up an appointment with our grad student consultancies.”
The consultants of the OUWC work through writing issues with several different students each day. Armijo explains the writing errors she encounters the most through her experience.
“We definitely see a lot of citations, mostly because I feel like in high school, everything was in MLA, and you go to college and all of a sudden everything has to be in APA,” Armijo said. “Because of this, people don’t really know how to format stuff and they don’t know where to go for resources.”
While scheduling an OUWC appointment, students are asked about their major and the course they are receiving services. These questions are asked to match students with a consultant best fit to assist. While many students of various majors visit the writing center, Armijo notices more students from specific majors.
“I’ve seen a lot of nursing majors because they have a lot of big research papers and major projects in that major. Also some computer science majors, and a lot of majors where writing is not the central focus of it, so you get a writing project and you’re not really familiar with a lot of the writing strategies, because that’s not what your major is focused on,” Armijo said.
Armijo is one of the more recent additions to the OUWC roster, as she joined during the Fall Semester of 2023. Armijo explains her favorite part about helping around the Writing Center.
“I would say my favorite part about the writing center is probably feeling like you’re actually helping somebody on some level,” Armijo said. “Whether that’s helping with the transition into college or just helping come up with an idea for a project, I think that’s a nice aspect of it.”
To learn more about the OUWC and to set up an appointment, please visit its OU webpage. For helpful tips and tricks to help improve writing, please visit the OUWC YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@OaklandUWC.
Mary Jo Ahern • Feb 6, 2024 at 8:03 AM
The Writing Center sounds like a great resource for both undergrad and graduate students. Offering writing support to students could be pivotal to their success at Oakland. As Norah mentioned, enhanced writing skills are necessary when a student is venturing from high school through college. Thanks, Norah, for sharing your love of writing with your classmates. Way to go!