Graduate Student Services - The Writing Center- Oakland University

The OUWC isn't just for undergraduates. Graduate students occupy a writing-rich environment, one in which they must write on demand. Our staff includes university faculty and graduate students who can offer assistance as you:

Draft or revise a manuscript for publication
Craft an assignment
Document accomplishments for tenure review
Compose a thesis or dissertation
Assemble a teaching portfolio
Construct a personal statement
Revise a curriculum vitae
Generate a proposal or mission statement
Prepare a syllabus, scaffold assignments, and offer feedback to student submissions

To schedule an appointment, make a referral, or request an in-class seminar or consultation, please send an e-mail to ouwc@oakland.edu or give us a call at (248) 370-3120.

GRADUATE SPECIFIC PROGRAMMING

Sit Down and Write!

If you are writing an article or about to commence your thesis or dissertation, you might benefit from a program that served 11 of OU's newly minted PhDs and their peers last year. The concept is rather simple. You bring a computer, anything with which you need to compose, and the willingness to writte. We provide a comfortable, distraction-free environment; snacks and luncH; targeted but brief break-out discussions; and limited consulting support for those who need it.

Sit Down and Write! runs twice a month on Saturday from 9 AM to 3 PM in 242 Kresge Library. To register for all or one of the following dates, click here:

January 12, 26

February 9

March 9, 23

April 13, 27

Dissertation 101

If you need more than accountability, such as support for specific tasks like drafting your IRB, representing the results of your statistical analyses, avoiding plagiarism or copyright infringement, and storing your data to protect its integrity and your participants' privacy, and the like, you might register here for a Dissertation 101 Workshop. The following workshops are forthcoming in September and October 2018:

Copyright and Fair Use: 6:30 PM on Thursday, September 27 in 242 Kresge Library. In this session, Associate Professor and Librarian Julia Rodriguez examines intellectual property rights and discusses appropriate use of copyrighted material.

Documenting, Organizing and Storing Your Research Data: 6:30 PM on Thursday, October 4 in 242 Kresge Library.Knowing how to best document, organize and store your data is an important consideration, whether you are taking classes, preparing to defend, or working at any stage in between. In this session, Research Data Librarian Joanna Thielen shares ways to help you:
Document your data so it makes sense later
Organize your data so you can find it later
Store your data safely and securely

Re-presenting the Literature in High Stakes Documents: Avoiding Common Pitfalls: 6:30 PM on Thursday, October 18 in 242 Kresge Library. Writing Center Director Sherry Wynn Perdue, Ph.D., discusses the features of effective literature reviews and highlights common problems that plague the efficacy of how writers represent the literature within theses and dissertations.

Writing with Statistics: 6:30 PM on Thursday, October 25 in 242 Kresge Library. In many cases, graduate writers not only struggle to choose and run the appropriate statistical tests but also to represent what they did, what they found, and why it matters. In this session, Dr. Julia Smith, Educational Leadership, who teaches quantitative analysis, regularly publishes quantitative studies, and who has supervised numerous dissertations, offers guidance on writing with statistics.