Located: Outside of RE 2201 in the library.

Staff: Liz Randall and Steve Higgins 

Hours: Spring 2010 Semester

Monday           9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Tuesday         9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., 12:15 - 6:00 p.m.     

Wednesday   9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m

Thursday        9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., 12:15 - 6:00 p.m. 

Friday              9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Phone Number: 618-468-4393

Email: writedsk@lc.edu

If you cannot make it to the writing desk during those times, Steve Higgins, director of the Writing Desk, will also be available to answer questions during his office hours as listed below.

MWF 2:00-3:00 pm.

Located: Caldwell Hall, Room 5318

Phone Number: 618-468-4785

Email: shiggins@lc.edu

OWL Procedures

LCCC students who want to submit their papers online and get feedback on text, organization, focus, audience, documentation, mechanics, clarity, and diction can do so by following the directions below.

Papers should be sent at least two school days in advance. In other words, if the essay is due on Monday, it must be sent in by Thursday morning if you wish to get it back in time for the assignment's due date.

When you submit your papers for assistance, you will need to have two items in the email:

1. 10 Questions listed below.
2. Copy of Draft.

10 Questions:

Please include the following questions with answers. The first few questions are necessary for our records, but the rest of the questions help us tailor our advice to you. We need to know about your purpose, audience, context, and writing concerns before we can give you helpful feedback. The more we know, the more we can help.

You will need to copy and paste the following questions in your message(email). After you have pasted the questions, please answer them with as much information as possible.

If an essay is sent without the following ten questions having been answered, it will be sent back without having been reviewed.

Instructions:

• Highlight questions 1 thru 10.
• Click on Edit, then select Copy.
• Open your email provider.
• Place your cursor in the body of your email and left click on your mouse. This places the cursor in the body of your email.
• Click on Edit, then select Paste.

Answer the questions.

1. Name:
2. E-mail Address:
3. Course name and number.
4. Instructor's name.
5. What is the audience for this paper?
6. What is your goal or intent in writing this paper?
7. Describe the assignment in as much detail as you can, including its length, format required, and due date.
8. What else would help us understand the purpose of the draft?
9. What do you see as your writing's strengths at this point?
10. What do you think are the main difficulties in this writing at this point?

Copy of Draft

When you are sending a copy of a draft, it will need to be an attachment formatted as a ".doc" (Microsoft Word Document) or as a ".rtf" (rich text format).

Please do not simply paste your essay into the email, for it ruins the formatting and makes it difficult to add comments. Also, do not send your paper as a ".wps," for Works files do not retain the formatting of our comments on your essay, which are written using Word.

Please make sure that the attachment is included in the body of the message(email). Place the attachment after the 10 Questions. Please consult your email provider on how to do an attachment.

After you have Copy/Pasted the 10 Questions and attached your draft, don't forget to go back and enter the information for "Subject:". It would be best to describe the assignment and include your name in the subject of the email, for the purposes of identification.

Then send the email to writedsk@lc.edu, and we will return it to you within two school days.

Please note that if an essay is of excessive length, we may return the essay to you without reviewing it, asking you to come by the desk in person instead. It is often less time-consuming for us, and our comments to you can also be more helpful at times, if we review longer or more detailed essays in person rather than online.

We may also ask the same of you, to bring your essay into us in person, if we feel there are too many problems in it to address, be they grammatical errors or otherwise. Finally, remember that we are not a proofreading service, so we humbly request that you read over your essay for minor spelling errors or typos before submitting it to us.

Important Links

For Assistance with Writing or MLA/APA:

Purdue University OWL

University of Wisconsin OWL

Avoiding Plagiarism

For those students with portable computing devices, WiFi internet access is available throughout the Reid building in the main complex, throughout the Commons area in the McPike Math & Science Complex and around TR 250.