Writing Support
We offer peer tutoring for all kinds of writing academic essaysresearch papers
short stories
poetry
grad written thesis
blog posts
artist statements
grants & applications
personal writing
etc.
at any stage of the process. assessing audience & purpose
brainstorming new ideas
outlining
drafting
restructuring
revising
practicing error correction
etc.
Our tutors are ready to help you:*
– Determine your writing goals and how to achieve them
– Try new strategies for brainstorming, organizing, and revising
– Discover resources and materials to help with next steps
– Get a reader’s perspective and advice on achieving your intentions
– Navigate disciplinary, academic, and cultural expectations
– Identify and prioritize repeated grammatical errors and work through examples
– Choose words for denotative and cultural effectiveness
*Keep in mind that we can only focus on one or two priorities in each appointment; follow-up visits are encouraged.
Writing at RISD
Writing is a powerful tool for processing and retaining information and for clarifying and conveying thoughts for ourselves and to others. It can play a profound role in artists’ and designers’ practice: articulating choices, processes, and contexts establishes an artist’s fluency and agency. That’s why you’ll find that writing is a cornerstone of engagement in the RISD community.
Undergraduates take Liberal Arts courses that emphasize writing for various disciplines, many of which may be new to you in the first year. You might also take upper-level Liberal Arts courses with intensive writing requirements, courses in creative writing, and engage in studio writing activities. Some departments, such as Photography, require a senior written thesis.
All graduate students write a thesis in their final year. While the criteria vary from department to department, most theses describe and illustrate your work and place it in historical, theoretical, and practical contexts. Graduate Commons courses may also emphasize reading and writing.
All RISD students will do plenty of professional writing, applying for grants, residencies, internships, jobs, and perhaps admission to graduate school or doctoral programs. Writing is also an art form itself, and many RISD students write poetry, fiction, or plays, or engage language as a material in their work.
Gaining skills in these different genres improves our ability to write for any context—a key to participation in local and global communities. Tutors are here to help you approach new discourses and negotiate between the types of language and rhetoric you already use and those you are trying to obtain.