Growing up, I never felt comfortable asking for help with my writing. I always thought that if I were a good writer, I wouldn’t need help. I could complete any written assignment on my own. This wasn’t untrue—after all, I was good enough for a teacher to convince me I should major in English—but my problem wasn’t with getting good grades but my attitude toward the writing process.
Many of us reach a point in our academic career where we start to dread writing assignments. From 200-word paragraphs to 20-page papers, the task is unfortunate and often procrastinated. By my sophomore year of college, starting an essay felt more difficult than it should be. I often judged myself for staring at a blank Google Doc for hours when I should have been typing away.
When one of my professors made it a requirement to discuss our first paper with a tutor at the Writing Center, I scheduled my 30-minute appointment a bit prematurely. The 5-page assignment was due in less than a week, and I hadn’t written a word—all I had was a page of bulleted notes. For the duration of my walk up to the O’Hara Student Center, I was anxious, not just for fear of being judged, but also because I was skeptical that talking through my writing would even be helpful.
When I walked in, I was greeted by a smiling undergraduate who signed me in and had me take a seat in the waiting area. I looked around, admiring the plants on the wooden shelves and forgetting whatever I was worried about. After just a few minutes, my faculty tutor came over and introduced herself, and we walked back to her table.
The session was nothing like the awkward, formal and stressful experience I had imagined. My tutor was kind, understanding and compassionate, and our conversation took unexpected turns that almost made me forget what I was there for; but it was extremely helpful. Simply talking through my ideas and getting some guiding questions gave me a much better sense of where I was going with my writing. I left feeling not just relieved but also motivated.
Don’t get me wrong, I still procrastinate on almost all my writing assignments. But now it’s easier to get started because I know that my first draft is not going to be perfect, and if I need another set of eyes, I have a place to go where I won’t be judged for asking for help. My only regret is not discovering it sooner.
Since many people like me avoid seeking help with their assignments, I spoke to one of the peer tutors at the Writing Center, Rowen Slepian, about what he wants Pitt students to know about this on-campus resource. “I wish more students knew that getting help with their writing isn’t and shouldn’t be a shameful process,” he says. “It’s impossible to write perfectly, and not even famous authors do things right on the first try.” Like me, Rowen hesitated to make his first appointment, but he found tutoring to be a beneficial, if not transformative, experience. “Letting other people see your writing in progress is hard and vulnerable,” he adds, “but is always helpful in my experience.”
If you’ve ever thought about making an appointment at the Writing Center, I highly recommend it. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a stuffy room where a professor corrects your grammatical errors and tells you how to “fix” your writing. It’s a welcoming space for collaborative discussion, and if you enter with an open mind, you might leave feeling like writing is a much less fearful task to approach. Whether you need to tackle a philosophy paper, finalize a job application or figure out how to organize your thesis, Pitt’s Writing Center is a great place to start.