Writers' Corner

Writers' Corner, Westmont’s writing center, is a creative space where student writers can find friendly “test readers” as they develop projects for professors, employers, and others. Tutors coach and collaborate with peers as they mature into more skillful and confident writers.

Come visit us in Voskuyl Library 215 in the library’s Learning Commons.
Clients with appointments are given first priority; drop-in clients are also welcome.
All tutorials are free of charge.

MAKE AN APPOINTMENT

Helpful Links:

Spring 2020 printable schedule (PDF)

Tutoring vs. Proofreading, or What Does it Mean that Tutors Don't Proofread?

Writers' Corner Policies and Procedures

Westmont College Academic Integrity Policy

Questions? Contact the writing center director.

Writers’ Corner tutors are skilled writers who are nominated and trained by faculty. They are happy to assist peers with a range of writing concerns:

• Genres of writing (understanding assignment prompts)
• Invention (getting started)
• Arrangement (getting organized)
• Thesis statements
• Paragraph development and structure 
• Integrating sources
• Common citation styles (MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian)
• Sentence style (grammar, mechanics, etc.)

Tutors are pursuing majors and minors in the following academic areas:

• Caylie Cox: English, Communication Studies
• Jack Dickinson: English, Religious Studies
• Graham Eberhardt: English, Computer Science
• Carolyn Gruss: English, Mathematics
• Maggie Hime: Chemistry, Art, Spanish
• Sharon Ko: Art, English
• Catherine Meng: Economics & Business, English
• Laura Phillips: English, Religious Studies, Writing
• Nathan Tudor: English, Religious Studies
• Chena Underhill: Data Analytics, Political Science
• Abigail Watson: English, History, Spanish

Staff bios:
 

Caylie Cox brings sparkle wherever she goes. She is a third-year majoring in English and minoring in Communication Studies; she also runs the student blog, Words of Warriors. A member of College Choir, she loves making sentences sing. She adores The Lord of the Rings and anything else by or about J.R.R. Tolkien. England Semester 2018 gave her an undying devotion to Ireland, the city of Oxford, and scones. She calls Colorado home and has two enormous, fluffy white cats whom she loves to cuddle. In her free time (okay...less busy time) she buys jewelry, plays piano, and swing dances. 

Jack Dickinson is double majoring in Religious Studies and English, but he is convinced that the English department is conspiring to turn his English degree into a degree in poetry. His favorite author is Jules Verne, and yes, that is the guy who mostly writes children’s books. As a staunch supporter of the DC food, he spends more time polishing off cookies than he does polishing his essays, but he isn’t too bad at either activity. Finally, if you get the chance, you should ask him about his Fantasy Football team (last year, the players’ first names formed the acrostic “Left Foot”).

Graham Eberhardt is an English major and Computer Science minor from the Land of Infinite Sunshine (New Mexico). He looks at the world through fantasy-tinted goggles and loves writing speculative fiction as much as he loves arguing that “plaid must be a color because it’s my favorite color.” He believes in the power of writing to touch on unique truths and is trying to do just that whenever he gets a chance to work on his novel in the free time between readings and papers. Ask him about the latest book or video game he’s gotten himself sucked into and he’ll probably talk your ear off if you don’t stop him. 

Since memorizing bedtime stories before she could read them herself, Elinore Ford has loved literature. She’s a California native fluent in both the surfer and standard dialects of English. A Biology and Political Science double major, Ellie has grown to appreciate how important writing is to any field. Speaking of fields, she spends much of her time outdoors and frequently interrupts conversation to enthuse about sighted Westmont wildlife ("squirrel! hummingbird! Scott Lisea!"). On Tuesday afternoons, you'll find Ellie in the writing center—catching the last rays of sunshine through the floor-to-ceiling window and finally talking about herself in the first person. 

As an English major double minoring in Math and Music, Carolyn Gruss is a proud disappointment to her scientist parents and understands what it's like to have a finger in all of the disciplinary pies. Her love affair with the written word started at a young age, and has only grown ever since, in tandem with her vast collection of books. Being the raging pedant that she is, she is also the rare student who enjoys writing papers, and thinks that walking alongside someone in the writing process is an immense privilege. As evidenced by this bio alone, she heavily favors the use of semicolons and em dashes—and you can pry the Oxford comma out of her cold, dead, and lifeless fingers. A native of La Crescenta, CA, she avoids the sun like the plague; hence, you can spot her running around campus with a large hat (as well as her book-shaped book bag). While drinking tea and daydreaming about moving to Wales are constant states of being for her, you can find her practicing her music or reading Keats (or perhaps some Tolstoy or Saint-Éxupery), in her rare moments of leisure.

Maggie Hime is a proud Colorado native whose roots in the mountains and love of fall colors run deep. As a Chemistry major, she gets more fired up about p orbitals than em dashes—nonetheless, she is eager to coach and collaborate with fellow writers over the course of this year. When she is not using (and breaking!) high-tech pipettes in the lab or daydreaming about her favorite hikes back home, you can catch her enjoying a chai latte at Lucky Llama or practicing her serve down at the tennis courts. 

From wading in the glimmering Mediterranean waters to gazing upon millions of Istanbul city lights as stars; from ever-dancing with Zulu children under the scorching South African sun to devouring warm kürtőskalács in the brisk Budapest air, Sharon Ko has seen the world with her eyes and her heart. Writing is what helps ground her global identity and materialize the immaterial. As an Art and English double major, Sharon is passionate about interweaving visual art with verbal communication to powerfully convey the state of human brokenness and the hope of painful, beautiful healing through Christ. As if visual and verbal expression are not enough, Sharon embraces the musical through Chapel Band, College Choir, and Chamber Singers. Language is undoubtedly an art to her--along with Korean and Turkish, English is a diverse palette of words ready to be painted with. Come join her in this endeavor to extend our minds onto paper.

“We’re investing a lot of money on your college education . . . you ARE getting a job, right?” This question has become habitual in Catherine Meng's household after she dropped the news of becoming not only an Economics & Business major but also an English major (especially since English wasn’t her first language). Although it seems as if Catherine is a risk-taker, her personality is quite the opposite. She considers herself a pretty mellow gal who likes to spend most of her time in coffee shops listening to country music and doodling. 

Emily Peterson is a Computer Science major who probably spends as much time writing prose as she does programs. A Santa Barbara native who needs Google Maps to find her house sometimes, her favorite place to get lost is in a good book. In the wise words of Gaffer Gamgee, “It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.” Sometimes the most difficult—and scariest—part of the writing process is simply putting one’s pen to the paper—don’t be afraid to start! When Emily isn’t daydreaming about Middle-earth, you might find her lifeguarding at the Westmont pool or eating more French fries in the DC than she should. Ask her about her unabashed addiction to em dashes—they’re pretty em-azing.

Laura Joy Phillips loves bunnies, trees, cellos, em dashes, and quail (especially their little quiffs); and despite owning a sizable bookshelf, she manages to have four or five piles of books on her desk at a time. Pursuing a major in English and minors in Writing and Religious Studies, she also enjoys exploring other fields such as Computer Science. At Westmont, Laura serves as the storyteller for the CATLab, a peer tutor in the library, and a member of Writers' Corner. As a half-American, half-Filipina who grew up in Malaysia, she may not know where she's "from," but she will probably know where to acquire rice. She spends most of her time reading, writing, and talking about reading and writing. Her creative endeavors include essays, novels, poetry, and silly choose-your-own-adventure stories that usually end in the reader getting turned into some kind of plant.

Robert Speiser is a Ph.D. candidate in Education (Language & Literacy) at UC Santa Barbara. He teaches ENG 002 (Composition) at Westmont and has previously taught English and linguistics courses at UCSB, CSU Northridge, and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Certified in TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) since 2005, Prof. Speiser is fully bilingual in English and Spanish and enjoys working with students from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Nathan Tudor thinks aesthetically excellent writing is not required for a compelling thesis; however, it might make the world a better place. Nathan does not know when his (arguably excessive) love of the em dash began, but you can bet it will rear its head sooner or later in anything he writes. As a Religious Studies and English double major, he likes books that confuse him since they invariably make the most sense. He also laments that the enlightened, contemporary world takes reality so seriously it has blinded itself to the supernatural—the most real reality we dare grasp. It may therefore come as little surprise that if offered the chance to have dinner with a dead person, he would choose the “prince of paradox,” G.K. Chesterton. His Romanian heritage predisposes him to Stoker’s Dracula, and much like the Count, he could use more sunlight.

Chena Underhill is a Political Science and Data Analytics major. She is from Georgia/Maryland/Illinois and is a Jane Austen enthusiast. Other favorite authors include L.M. Montgomery and Louisa May Alcott. Basically, she prefers books where not much happens, but the words are pretty, the characters human, and the endings happy. Her favorite part of the writing process is constructing super-solid outlines so that the actual writing is easier. She is also passionate about pole vaulting, classical ballet, polar-fleece sweatshirts with zipper pockets, and all things dessert.

Abby Watson  is a wanderer who hoards words from the different dialects she’s encountered, so y’all best be prepared to hear a horrendous mishmash of southern twang, midwestern nasal, and just a hint of New Jersey shoreline. When she was eight, her Christmas present was a self-publishing book kit. Unfortunately, she never finished it, so she understands all too well that procrastination is an old and fiendish foe. As an English major, Abby enjoys reading literature and speculative fiction, analyzing the etymology of words and cheerfully mangling them in her day-to-day speech. She is excited to join this community of writers and perhaps learn some Californian lingo as well.