Vision

The Writing Studio understands that students approach writing in a complex way, which encompasses more than just the act of writing itself. Deadlines, self-perceptions, past experiences, and everyday demands all factor in how students perceive writing. We strive to meet our students where they are and work with them to succeed at writing on their terms.

For some students, "success" means learning how to put a writing skill set (e.g., thesis writing, citing sources, creating a works cited page) into action. For others, "success" may be set in more modest terms, such as finishing the writing assignment by its deadline.

Whatever success may look like to you, the Writing Studio and its consultants always put the needs of the students first. Our services are intended to help students achieve success while also offering them avenues to continually improve their writing, researching, editing, and critical thinking skills.

We offer numerous opportunities to work in the Writing Studio, including:

  • Scheduled consultations;
  • Walk-in studio hours;
  • Virtual (Zoom) studio hours;
  • Open studio tables;
  • Group collaboration spaces;
  • Private studio workspaces;
  • Mindfulness Rooms;
  • In-class workshops;
  • In-studio workshops; and
  • Online writing resources.

We purposefully diversify our space and program offerings so that students are able to find whatever form and modality best suits their writing styles.

To learn more about each of these opportunities, check out the Writing Studio home page.

Values

To us, writing is more than than just putting words on a page or completing class assignments. It's part of something bigger than any single class or assignment. And it impacts a student long after their time at Reynolds.

Our vision for the Writing Studio is provide students a space and a platform to experiment with their writing, to learn what works for them, and, hopefully, the chance to surprise themselves with what they are able to do! We want to show our students that they can become confident and effective writers. We want to cultivate their sense of curiosity and their awareness of themselves. We want to contribute something positive to their lives.

In sum, our vision for the Writing Studio is that is is not just a space for students to come and write, it is a community.

Voice

The writing consultants at the Writing Studio believe that there can be no vision without voice. When we work with students, we do not seek to impose our own voices or beliefs on to our students. Rather, we ask them questions and challenge them to find the words for what they want to say and to organize their thoughts on paper.

The principles that allow us to do this are:

  • Collaboration. Our consultants work with students to improve their writing, but ultimately our goal is to foster their ability to critically read and edit their work independently.
  • Dialogue. Our consultants don't tell, they ask. Through conversation, our consultants help students understand how to match their writing to any required writing task. We believe this dialogue between writers produces writing potential, power, creativity, and knowledge.
  • Listening. Our consultants act as an audience for students and a soundboard for their ideas. We come to understand our students for who they are as a writer and offer personalized feedback for improvement.
  • Personal Agency. We teach students to recognize that the power of their writing is driven by the power of their own voices and we identify and celebrate our students as their confidence in writing grows.
  • Consultation, not correction. Although we work with words and writing, the work our consultants do goes far beyond writing. We do not proofread and correct texts. Rather, we discuss the demands of the writing task at hand and help students learn to question the writing choices they make (or need to make). Then we will help them to apply this knowledge to their writing product. Our goal is for students to understand that writing is a form of investment and to actively participate in making it the best it can be!
  • Individual voice. One of our main goals as consultants is to help students understand their own writing processes so that they are then able to develop their own writing voice, a voice that is honed through both craft and practice.