The Writing Center staff is using online resources to serve students with their writing assignments.

Students can still have their reviewed by qualified tutors.  Students need to email Word documents to the Center.  In addition, staffers are offering students  video conferences to discuss their work one-one-one in real time.

“One of our biggest changes we have made has been to expand our weekly hours to better serve our students,” said Matthew Hinton, assistant director of Student Success Center and Academic Support Services.

Hinton said the Center has accepted email paper submissions for some time, but students who use that option only may miss out a more personal experience.

“The one aspect students will be missing out on is the timing of the input they would receive from tutors,” he said. “This means that students won’t necessarily hear portions of their paper read aloud by a writing tutor or won’t get to see our fantastic SSC full of tutoring cubicles or find themselves in the large, inviting Writing Center itself.”

The Writing Center boasts a high turnover of paper reviews each semester, Hinton said, and the number of student submissions is about equal to past fall semesters.

Hinton hopes to return to in-person sessions as soon as it is safe for both tutors and students. For now, he sees virtual service as an opportunity for people to get better accustomed to technology

“I do think we will reopen to in-person services, but not before we are through the pandemic and the university returns to some of the traditional campus life we all know and love and miss. If anything, Misericordia students, staff, and faculty will come out of this pandemic with a better knowledge of the technological resources at hand and will be more comfortable in using them. When we do finally return to in-person paper sessions, we will simply continue to make the most of those resources,” he said.

Students  are embracing the Center now as they have in the past.

“Through my three years at Mis., the Writing Center as helped me with a handful of essays for my classes. They helped me with ideas, grammar and the flow of my writing,” said Ben Hofmanner, junior physical therapy major.

Hofmanner said he hasn’t noticed too much of a change.

“I feel like it will be different, however, the same options that the tutoring and Writing Center offer are still available. I can still meet with a tutor over Zoom, and I am still able to submit my work to the Writing Center to get it looked at. Therefore, I am still able to receive all the help that I need,” Hofmanner said.

Hinton said the staff is doing whatever they can to help students, and even themselves, adjust to these new, and sometimes challenging, times.

The Writing Center is Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Email papers to staff at [email protected].