The Writing Center offers one-on-one sessions with trained writing partners are available to all members of the ESU and Emporia community without charge. Our writing partners provide suggestions for improving writing projects at all stages of the writing process, including documentation.

We offer Zoom video conferencing sessions with trained writing partners are available to all distance members of the ESU community along with tailored workshops and presentations for faculty.

We also offer graduate writing services designed to assist graduate students with critical reading, writing, and analytical skills.

Writing handouts are available on a variety of writing-related topics. Some are quick reviews for punctuation and common grammar errors.

We also offer help with

• Main Idea/Thesis. Your thesis is your main idea, your central claim, the one point you want to prove with your entire paper. We can help you narrow or expand the scope of your focus as necessary.
• Content Development. This is your support, where a writer makes a claim then uses evidence to support that claim. We can help you evaluate the adequacy of your content development and help you determine if you are choosing fact and empirical data over opinion and qualitative evidence.
• Organization. Certain strategies exist to help make papers as strong as possible through the evaluation and organization of information. We can help you evaluate your organizational patterns and choices, so you can determine what works best for your purpose, audience, and personal style.
• Introduction/Conclusion. The introduction and conclusion are more than bookends for a paper. Regardless of your process, we can help you create an introduction and conclusion that are engaging and appropriate.
• Use of Resources. Often you will be asked to draw upon outside sources to add support and legitimacy to your writing. We can offer you assistance in the integration and ethical use of information in your paper, and we are able to help you evaluate sources and offer suggestions how to do more than just “insert a quote.”
• Transitions. This element is where writing flows. Ideas should really connect easily to the next at both the sentence and the paragraph level. We can help you review your transitions and suggest ways to make your ideas connect more naturally.
• Grammar & Mechanics. These are the essential structural elements that make up language. Most native speakers have an inherent understanding of these items, even if most native speakers have not mastered the comma. We can help you with the mechanics of your paper.
• Sentence Structure. Sentence structure includes using a variety of sentence styles and making more sophisticated sentence choices. Academic writing tends to demand greater sentence variety, integrating strong word choices, and provide different types of phrasing and nuances to enhance your meaning. We can help you improve your sentence structure.
• Word Choice. Based on audience, style, and purpose, your word choice is important. For a professional or specialized audience, you should add context-specific language and choose words that are appropriate to the rhetorical situation and context. We are here to help with your word choices.