Many students, when they need help with any kind of writing assignment, turn to an individual teacher after class hours, or look for help in the schools’ resource centers. But now, Creek’s English Department has created a place for students to start conversations and get help in writing whenever they need it, with any English teacher. Located in the East Resource Center, Creek’s Writer Studio helps students with academic and creative writing during lunch periods.
“The idea behind the writer’s studio is not as a place to send students to punish them or correct their writing but to start conversations about approaches to writing to make it more approachable and less intimidating,” English teacher Dr. Joel Morris said.
Morris has worked alongside English Coordinator Christin Jacob to grow and develop a writers’ studio.
Originally, Creek had a space like this in the Post Grad Center, but the space was solely for college essays, so the Writers’ Studio program expanded on this idea to include any writings from literary analyses to history papers. Additionally, this program is not isolated to solely academic pieces.
“We’re supporting students with their academic writing, but also supporting students with creative writing as well,” English Department Coordinator Christin Jacob said.
This program was inspired mainly by The University of Denver’s writing center, where Jacob works with the coordinator, Juli Parrish. Like many other colleges, the program at DU is student-run and a part of the course catalog. Within the center, graduate and advanced undergraduate students help fellow students in all writing fields, whether in one-on-one appointments or asynchronous peer responses.
Much like DU Creek Writers’ Studio, the hope is that this will become a more student-led program. The goal is to turn this into a class where students could receive credit, give peer reviews, and help other students throughout various periods of the day.
The Writers’ Studio has seen a slight increase in student use since August. However, the program is still relatively small and only sees a few students coming in daily. Because of this, many hope that the program will grow and impact more students in the future.
“Right now, I get excited when I see two students in there, on an off period, because at least two students are coming in for help,” Jacob said.
For students, the studio creates an environment that provides feedback and advances students’ writing capabilities, which in turn benefits them in their next essay or creative writing project.
“I come to double check and know what I can do better on my next essay, and how to improve,” sophomore Oscar Salgado said.
Jacob hopes to introduce the program in advisory classes, more specifically freshman classes, to let students know this is a resource they have. They also aim to introduce the program in classrooms to further support students.
Both Morris and Jacob hope that in the next several years, the program will continue to grow and become a more impactful place at Creek, making it easier for students to tackle writing.
“I hope, as it’s catching on, that it has made writing a little bit less intimidating,” Morris said.
