The Writing Center at your school might just be its best kept secret. Most schools have one, though few people have heard of them, and sadly, even fewer have actually ever visited one. But if you’ll indulge me for just a few minutes, maybe we can change that!

Common Reasons People Don’t Visit The Writing Center

1. Writing centers are for bad writers and my writing is fine.

2. I don’t need another person to point out all of my flaws.

3. I don’t write my papers until the night before they are due.

4. The writing tutors won’t understand my content well enough.

5. Writing center? What’s that?

6. I went once and had a terrible experience.

Any of those sound familiar? If so, here are some counterarguments:

Writing centers are for bad writers and my writing is fine.

If you think of some of the best books, movies, essays, or articles you’ve ever read by the best and most famous authors in the world, none of those, absolutely none of them, were written by that author alone. The best authors in the world have friends, editors, publishers, and early-readers read their work and give them feedback. So, unless you are better than all of those people, maybe you could use an extra pair of eyes as well. (Even this simple blog post was read by multiple people first.)

I don’t need another person to point out all of my flaws.

First, better a writing tutor than your actual professor who hands out grades at the same time. Second, writings centers aren’t about pointing out flaws. Their chief job is to increase your confidence by highlighting strengths and helping you think through the choices you’ve made.

I don’t write my papers until the night before they are due.

Oh boy, there are other issues at play here, but that’s a different post. For now though, I’ll just say this: you don’t need a final product. Even if you know you won’t write the entire paper until later, you can bring the first few paragraphs or an outline to talk through with your writing tutor. That kind of guidance can come in handy when you finally get around to writing your actual paper the night before. (Though really, try not to wait until the night before to write the WHOLE thing…)

The writing tutors won’t understand my content well enough.

Creating better writing is almost never about better content. What it is about is the effectiveness of your arguments, the consistency of the narrative you are trying to tell, and the logical progression of its pieces. This is the kind of thing that is actually best assessed by someone who is unfamiliar with the topic because they won’t be distracted by the nuances of the topic you are writing about. Finally, we should all aim to write clearly enough that someone unfamiliar with the content can understand and engage with our topic.

Writing Center? What’s that?

Should have probably started with this one… but, ask around or ask Google, your school most likely has one. Generally, they are a judgement-free place full of well-trained students who love writing and simply want to help. My wife was a writing tutor in college. She had to take a course one semester from the head of the writing center, observe and interview expert writing tutors, and continually do workshops and exercises designed to increase her expertise. All of that is to say, you are in good hands.

I went once and had a bad experience.

That sucks and I’m sorry. But if you can, try not to let that discourage you too much. If an alien came to Earth and happened to land in the middle of the desert where he was promptly bitten by a snake, he might not want to come back to Earth either. But we, having lived here forever, know that if he never came back, he’d be missing the Grand Canyon, the Swiss Alps, the smell of bacon in the morning, and all the other incredible things Earth has to offer.

Give it a shot!