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Simpson Writing Center
From your first paper to final capstone, we'll help you do the write thing
In-Person Writing Center
Mary Berry Hall, Rm 109 and 111 | Sunday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.
The Simpson Writing Center (SWC) offers individualized assistance to all Simpson students across every discipline. We’re here to help you with any form of written, oral, visual, or electronic (WOVE) communication.
From brainstorming and organizing ideas to revising and polishing drafts, the SWC guides you through all stages of the composing process. Our team of writing consultants will help you assess and develop your own work in a highly collaborative process.
Online Writing Lab (OWL)
In addition to in-person consulting sessions, the SWC also offers convenient virtual assistance through our Online Writing Lab (OWL).
How it works
- Select an appointment from the available time slots.
- Upload your document for an OWL consultant to read and annotate.
- The consultant will send you an OWL Report of your session. The report will include a list of items you wanted to work on, your document with annotations and comments, and a closing note.
Do I have to do anything or go anywhere during my appointment slot?
Nope! You can sit back and relax. The appointment slots just show when your consultant is online and available to work on your document. You can upload your materials at any time leading up to the appointment time.
How quickly will I receive my OWL Report?
Immediately following your appointment slot, your consultant will send you an email with the OWL Report.
Documentation Styles
The MLA, or Modern Language Association, style of citing sources within a paper is used primarily by writers in the humanities (English, foreign language, history, philosophy, and religion).
Helpful MLA Source Citing Tips
- When using the MLA style of documentation, cite sources used within your text by placing the last name of the author(s) and the corresponding page number(s) (if available) in parentheses after a direct or an indirect quote (Jones 3).
- It is not necessary to place a comma between the last name of the author and the page number, nor is it necessary to use “p.” etc. before the page number.
- If the author is unknown, place the title of the document in parentheses instead (How to Cite Internet Sources 3).
- In addition to citing sources within your paper in this manner, you need to create a works cited page which lists all of the publication information for the sources you used in alphabetical order.
Additional Information:
MLA Style (provided by Purdue University Online Writing Lab)
The APA, or American Psychological Association, style of documentation is used primarily by writers in the social sciences (economics, political science, psychology, sociology, and anthropology).
Helpful APA Tips
- When using the APA style to document sources, place the last name of the author(s) in parentheses with the year of publication (Jones, 1996) after both direct and indirect quotes. Place a comma between the author’s last name and the year.
- Page numbers should also be included after the year of publication for direct quotes, although they are optional for indirect quotes (Jones, 1996, p. 28). Place a comma between the year and the page number.
- If the author of the document you are citing is not known, replace the author’s last name with the title of the document (“The Internet as a Research Tool,” 1997, p. 4).
- In addition to citing sources within your paper in this manner, you need to create a works cited page which lists all of the publication information for the sources you used in alphabetical order.
Additional information:
APA Style (provided by the American Psychological Association)
APA Style (provided by Purdue University Online Writing Lab)
The Turabian, or Chicago, style of documentation incorporates the use of either endnotes or footnotes.
Helpful Turabian-Chicago Tips
- When using the Turabian style of documentation to cite sources, place a superscript number after each quotation, paraphrase, or summary.1 Citations are numbered in order throughout your paper, and each citation must be accompanied by a numbered note containing publication information about the source you are using. This information can be contained in either endnotes at the end of your paper on a separate page or in footnotes at the bottom of the page within your paper.
- Although the endnotes or footnotes in your paper contain all of the publication information necessary to verify or retrieve your citation, you may also include a bibliography (an alphabetized list of sources used) at the end of your paper. Ask your professor if they would like both endnotes or footnotes and a bibliography if you are unsure about whether to include one with your paper.
- If you do include a bibliography with your paper, it will differ from your endnotes or footnotes in three ways:
- the authors’ names are inverted (the last name of the author is first, followed by the first name),
- the elements of entries are separated by periods,
- and the first line of each entry is flush with the left margin, with subsequent lines indented five spaces.
Additional Information:
Turabian Style (The University of Chicago Press)
Presentations and Workshops
Our writing center director or writing consultants will be happy to visit your classroom, organization or meeting and deliver a presentation or workshop on a topic of your choice — at no cost.
Please give the SWC at least a week before your desired date. If you want to modify a current presentation or suggest a new one, please contact the Writing Center Director.
Already know which presentation or workshop you are interested in? Click here to schedule now.
Duration: (10-20 min. presentation)
About: What are the Simpson Writing Center and the Online Writing Lab, and how can they help your students? This presentation is ideal for first-semester freshmen, transfer students, or returning Simpson Online students who might not be familiar with Simpson’s resources.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 30 minutes
About: This presentation provides an overview of the citation formats in a given course. The session will cover the basics of in-text and reference page formatting, when to cite, common citation signal phrases, and pros and cons of common citation generators.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 30-45 minutes
About: Academic integrity in college is more stringent than high school, and the Writing Center will reveal some of the contextual factors that make plagiarism a confusing issue for students, an alarming concern for instructors, and an ethical dilemma for administrators. This presentation covers the most common forms of plagiarism and the reasons students resort to it. Students will also engage in fun ethical scenarios during the session to help them understand the severity of academic dishonesty cases.
- Recommended for first-year students. Can be run with a quiz at the end for students to demonstrate their understanding of the subject.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 45-50 minutes
About: SWC consultants Angel Schewe (’25), Anna Schewe (’25), and Kaya Young (’24) developed this presentation to answer a simple question: why do writers procrastinate? After students learn about a New York Times article offering several solutions, students will reflect on intersecting areas of their lives that may be influencing their academic procrastination. Students will then come up with a game plan to get back on track.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 50 minutes
About: Starting papers can be the hardest hurdle to jump through, but brainstorming in depth can help spark great ideas which turn into motivation. The brainstorming sprint workshop helps students start their paper from scratch in an innovative way. This presentation was developed by Morgan Kerkman (’24), Alyssa Love (’23), and Kalen Stefanick (’24).
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup, students need a writing utensil and paper
Duration: 25-35 minutes
About: This presentation teaches students the “you only need one article” method of source finding. Scholars write in conversation with other academics, and this mindset is the key to knowing how to research in college. By using one source, the article’s citations, and Google Scholar’s “cited by” feature, students can create bibliographies that reliably address a common academic conversation. Finally, we conclude with some caveats, tips, and tricks.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 15-20 minutes
About: This session will help students develop reading strategies for academic articles, such as pre-reading strategies, note-taking strategies, resource storage and organization, and drafting short annotations for later use.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: (25-35 min. presentation)
About: This presentation teaches students the “you only need one article” method of source finding. Scholars write in conversation with other academics, and this mindset is the key to knowing how to research in college. By using one source, the article’s citations, and Google Scholar’s “cited by” feature, students can create bibliographies that reliably address a common academic conversation. Finally, we conclude with some caveats, tips, and tricks.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 20-30 minutes
About: Sometimes there isn’t enough time to come to the writing center or receive feedback from anyone before submitting a paper, but revision can be done entirely on your own. This presentation walks through the importance of revision, self-revision steps, and a checklist for students to follow when revising on their own. This presentation was created by Kate Huisinga (26’) and Makayla Paulsen (26’).
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 55 minutes
About: Revising is one of the most important steps when writing. This workshop helps students analyze their papers sentence by sentence through a chunking activity, as well as creating a reverse outline for students to view their overall argument and structure of their papers. After this workshop, students will have a game plan to make revisions to their paper’s structure, argument, evidence, and sources.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup, students need a completed draft of their papers
Duration: 25-40 minutes
About: In this presentation and peer review workshop, students learn the importance of revising based on feedback. It takes effort to receive critical feedback, and sometimes the comments aren’t clear to the writer. The presentation dives into how to provide feedback to others, the value of readers, and what to prioritize when revising. Students will then do a peer review activity and learn how to create an action plan with feedback provided by their peers.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup, students should have a physical or digital copy of their papers for the peer review workshop
Duration: 25-40 minutes
About: In this presentation and peer review workshop, STEM students learn the importance of revising based on feedback. It takes effort to receive critical feedback, and sometimes the comments aren’t clear to the writer. The presentation dives into how to provide feedback to others, the value of readers, and what to prioritize when revising. Students will then do a peer review activity and learn how to create an action plan with feedback provided by their peers.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup, students should have a physical or digital copy of their papers for the peer review workshop
Duration: 20-30 minutes
About: Reading through scientific papers can be confusing for students who haven’t ever been exposed to STEM writing. This presentation breaks down the components of scientific papers and what to keep in mind when going through them to help students comprehend what they’re reading.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 40 minutes
About: In the STEM Reports or Articles presentation, writers will learn the purposes and strategies of Introductions, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. This presentation is highly detailed and should be reserved for students a) preparing research articles, b) planning on attending grad school in a STEM field, or c) heading into a STEM internship where they may be working on research teams. Students should have some experience with writing lab reports or process
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 20-30 minutes
About: Writing scholarship essays can be some of the hardest writing for students to do because writing about yourself isn’t always easy. This presentation covers some tips and tricks on how to write a scholarship essay and stand out through your writing.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 20-30 minutes
About: Applying to grad school or a job that requires you to write a personal statement? Let’s walk through the steps and process of writing one together. This presentation outlines tips and a new method to writing personal statements.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 30 minutes
About: Prepping for a conference? Need to share your research at the Research and Creativity Symposium? This presentation covers the basics of visual design, visual aid usability rules, and tasteful tips to make your poster visually appealing and effective.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 30 minutes
About: Prepping for a class presentation? Need to share your presentation at the Research and Creativity Symposium? This presentation covers the basics of visual design, visual aid usability rules, and tasteful tips to make your PowerPoint presentations visually appealing and effective.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
Duration: 25-35 minutes
About: Zotero is a free and open-source reference management software, which means users can store citations (including files, such as PDFs of articles and books), take notes and make tags across sources, and cite those sources automagically in all major word processor apps (e.g., MS Word, Pages, Google Docs, and more). This workshop helps participants set up their Zotero library, download their first sources, and explore how to cite in their word processing app.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup, students should bring their computers
Duration: 25-35 minutes
About: Obsidian is a free, open-source note taking tool that embraces the Zettelkasten method of note taking. Basically, it is all about linking ideas together to show unexpected connections over time. At its simplest, anyone can use Obsidian as any other note app; at its best, a person can create a second brain of networks which links sources across disciplines, years, and more. This workshop demonstrates the basics of digital note taking and some of the most effective note taking strategies with Obsidian.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup,
Duration: 20-30 minutes
About: Grammarly is a spelling, grammar, and usage automated feedback tool. All Simpson students, faculty, and staff have access to a free Grammarly Premium account, which they can access by logging in to Grammarly using their Simpson credentials. As useful as this tool is, any algorithm will have blind spots and biases, and Grammarly has several limitations that Simpson users should know. This presentation will cover the basics of how to get the most out of Grammarly, as well as when not to use or rely on Grammarly.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup, students should bring their computers
Duration: 20-30 minutes
About: This presentation teaches students several different ways to use generative AI to help them write from ideation to completion. Students will learn Simpson’s policies, common limitations and fallbacks of AI, ethical considerations of using AI, and potentially useful new tools for their writing.
Technology needs: Projector and laptop hookup
