Bren Writing Center
Bren Hall 4406
(805) 893-8512
The Bren Writing Center helps students improve their skills in a range of academic and professional writing tasks.
Writing Center staff can help you generate ideas, organize information, revise, and polish your documents in a supportive one-on-one environment. We also offer workshops to enhance the readability of your writing.
A variety of writing tasks may be reviewed at the Center including class assignments, research proposals, funding applications, and project presentations.
Bren Class of 2010: Click here for Bren Writing Assessment materials.
Fall 2008 Hours:
• Monday 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
• Tuesday 9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
• Note: Janet Martorana, our Environmental Sciences Librarian, is available Tuesday 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
• Wednesday 11:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
• Thursday 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
• Friday 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
To schedule an appointment:
• Send us an e-mail
• Drop-in sessions are also available
• Most sessions last about 30 minutes
• Priority will be given to students who have not received more than three sessions per quarter
What to bring:
Your session will be more productive if you bring:
• The assignment
• Drafts, outlines, or brainstorm notes
• Any comments or feedback you have received from your instructor
Note: The Writing Center staff does not copyedit papers; rather we support students to develop their own professional writing processes.
Past Workshops:
• Framing an argument: The key to compelling writing at Bren [Tuesday, 10/16] [download ppt]
• Working and Writing Together: Strategies for Effective Collaboration [Tuesday, 11/13] [download ppt | notes]
Helpful handouts:
Our workshop handouts can be a valuable addition to your writing practice. Use our "Common Mistakes" guide as a quick reference, or our memo formatting handout to help with your next assignment. Check here after our workshops to download the handouts we've used:
• Common Mistakes in Graduate Writing
• How to Write an Effective Memo
Writing Center staff:
Monica Bulger is a Ph.D. candidate in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education. Her research interests include literacy, educational technologies, and learning and cognition. The majority of her research focuses on pedagogically sound methods of using technologies as learning tools. For her dissertation research, she is examining the cognitive strategies students use when gathering online information to complete academic assignments. She is a graduate researcher with the Transliteracies Project and Center for Information Technology and Society. Before co-founding the Bren Graduate Writing Center, she taught technical and scientific writing in the UCSB Writing Program.
Kate Kokosinski is a MESM student at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Before attending Bren, she worked as a staff toxicologist for an environmental consulting firm in Davis, California. In addition to writing proposals to elicit new projects for the firm, she also prepared annual reports that summarized the water quality of agricultural systems and were submitted to the appropriate Regional Water Quality Control Boards (RWQCB).
Janet Martorana, the Environmental Sciences Librarian, holds office hours at Bren each week during the academic year. Just drop by if you need any help in doing your literature searches or help with other information research needs. Her hours for the current quarter are listed above. She is also available for research consultations or Group Project group instruction at other times as well. E-mail or call to set up an appointment: martoran@library.ucsb.edu, (805) 893-8724.
Lara Polansky is a MESM student at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Prior to attending Bren, Lara attended the University of Miami where she worked as a tutor in the Academic Resource Center. More recently, she served as a teaching assistant for a writing-intensive Environmental Studies course. She has also prepared numerous policy documents during her fellowships with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
• UCSB Library's Help with Citing Sources
• Purdue University Online Writing Lab
• Grant Writing Tips from UCSB's Office of Research
• Our favorite online grammar resource: Dr. Grammar
• University of Minnesota Center for Writing
• General research and documentation from Diana Hacker
• Scientific Style and Format, published by the Council of Biology Editors 1994
• Strunk & White's Elements of Style
• Paragraph structure: Coherence and transitions from Indiana University, Bloomington's Writing Center
• Twelve common errors from University of Minnesota's Writing Center
• Helpful Tips for Science Poster Design from George Mason University
• References for Science Writing from George Mason University
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