The Writing Center is a place where students can receive free one-to-one tutoring on all types of writing, from composition essays and graduate school applications to marketing papers and lab reports.
The Beren Writing Center provides a supportive environment for student writers. Tutors work one-on-one with students of all skill levels at any stage in the writing process. Tutors and students take part in a collaborative learning effort. Tutors do not edit work or think for students; rather, tutors serve as active readers, asking questions, following up implications, and reflecting their impressions of students’ writing. This allows students to strengthen their ideas for any writing project.
Our goal is not just to help students complete a given assignment, but to develop thinking and writing skills that will help with every assignment. Our sessions focus on global writing issues (developing ideas, formulating theses, using sources, clarifying structure), rather than focusing on editing and polishing punctuation, grammar, and spelling. This focus helps students develop a sense of ownership and pride in their writing. By helping students understand the writing and revision process, we help and encourage them to realize their full potential as writers and thinkers.
215 Lexington Avenue, Room 518
New York, NY 10016
berenwritingcenter@yu.edu
The Writing Center offers hour-long appointments and is open Sunday-Friday during the academic year. Check our online schedule for specific appointment times. If you are looking for an appointment at a time that's already taken, add your name to the waitlist by clicking the clock icon near the date you're interested in.
Using research, either in the form of quoting or paraphrasing an author, strengthens the validity of an argument.
When we, members of an academic community, use research, we show evidence of having academic integrity.
Academic integrity is the notion that we gain knowledge from the ideas of others; we must then be responsible for crediting other scholars for the ideas that we learn from them.
It is absolutely necessary to be honest about the information we learn from others and to cite the sources of those authors who teach us.
To maintain academic integrity, it is important to cite your sources according to the documentation style used by your discipline or requested by your professor. Click on the appropriate documentation style below.
The American Psychological Association (APA) documentation style (PDF) in often used is psychology, sociology, and education.
Modern Language Association (MLA) documentation style (PDF) is often used in humanities courses, such as foreign languages and English literature.
The American Political Science Association (APSA) style sheet is used by scholars in that discipline.
If you have further questions about what method to use or how to cite properly, speak to your professor or visit the Writing Center.
If you need an online dictionary, the Writing Center recommends Merriam-Webster Online or Dictionary.com.
A good place for help with enhancing word choice in your writing is Thesaurus.com.
Purdue has a really helpful website with a multitude of writing resources that many of us in the Writing Center use ourselves: OWL at Purdue.
There are thousands of excellent online writing resources, but it can be difficult to know how to find them. Try searching by using the phrase "writing center" (in quotation marks) and the name of whatever you need help with (for instance, "resumes," "titles," "literary analysis," and so on).
These collections of online resources are also useful: