Soft murmurs between tutors and students join the chorus of typing that fills the Writing Room. Nestled into classroom 14 of the Academic Building, the Writing Room has become a sanctuary for writing help and has made its mission clear: To make the world a better place one writing assignment at a time.

 “All students can come here for help with their writing assignments for any class and career related writing,” Dr. Amy Berry, Director of the Writing Room, said. “Say a student is looking for a job, which they need to apply for that very day. They can come in here and we can help them with a quick resume.”

            Open Monday through Thursday from 8:00am until 8:00pm, Fridays from 1:00pm to 4:00pm, and Sundays from 5:00pm to 9:00pm, the Writing Room has set out to make its services available for as long as possible to as many as possible. Dr. Berry, Angela Knapp, Chris Klein and Raoul Olmos make up the team of tutors who work alongside students to provide aid.

            “We help students learn to proofread and revise for themselves. A writing tutor here will never appropriate a student’s paper meaning; we do not take their paper and mark on it. The student is the one who holds the pen because it is a skill they need to learn for themselves,” Dr. Berry said.

            Plans to aggressively advertise the services of the Writing Room are currently in the works. Brightly colored flyers and signs proclaim times and services of the Writing Room, and a large display placed outside the Writing Room’s door requires students to either make a detour into the Writing Room or walk around its attention grabbing location on their way down the hallway. With the efforts so far, students are seeing results from their time in classroom 14.

            “Dr. Berry can see the problem in my writing like a medical doctor. She can diagnosis my problem so fast. You just have to have the guts to say you need help and not be ashamed because they are here to help,” Michelle Chang, Pharmaceutical major, said.   

            From helping students figure out the best way to start a literary paper to developing strategies to maintain paragraph coherence, the tutors of the Writing Room are always there to help with any writing assignment.  

             “The Writing Room has helped me type better and learn more about computers. The tutor explains everything very well and helps me understand. It’s been helping me a lot in my time here” Daniel Patterson, Kinesiology major, said.

            The mission is clear and the tutors are waiting. The hours of operation are posted and the door of the Writing Room remains open to any and all seeking help.

            “There is always help here and there is no such thing as a stupid question if the student needs help with it. We [the tutors] come here to help them [students] with the nuts and bolts of the writing process,” Dr. Berry said.