EIU Writing Center

The Writing Center and the Goals of Writing Conferences 

The Writing Center of Eastern Illinois University is a place where students can develop as writers and thinkers. We recognize that student writers come to the center with individual needs and individual writing processes, and we are committed to working with students from all disciplines, majors, and academic backgrounds at any stage of the writing process.

Writing Center consultants work with writers on a number of important tasks, such as these:

• Understanding and analyzing writing assignments
• Moving past writer’s block
• Brainstorming topics and ideas
• Revising for stronger content and adapting to audience
• Developing focus and thesis statements
• Organizing ideas and support
• Developing evidence, examples, and supporting details
• Revising for stronger development of and work with source materials
• Guiding writers to effectively integrate source materials
• Providing guidance on using citation systems
• Offering assistance on how to effectively and ethically summarize, paraphrase, and quote source materials
• Implementing strategies for strong paragraphing
• Improving cohesion through transitions and organization
• Revising for sentence-level clarity, precision, and emphasis
• Creating sentence variety for emphasis and cohesion
• Offering strategies for efficient and effective proofreading and editing
• Helping students find their own process for proofreading and editing