A Welcome from our Director
Welcome to Revise and Resubmit, the official newsletter of The GC Writing Center! Each monthly issue will include a brief advice column, information about upcoming workshops, and the occasional student spotlight. Navigating graduate school can be a hard and sometimes lonely experience. We hope that this newsletter will be a source not only of useful information for you, but also of motivation and compassionate guidance. We welcome your suggestions for future installments!
–Dave Hershinow, Director of The Writing Center
Featured Resource: Reverse Outlining
Every month, we’ll bring you a different resource to consider as you complete your writing tasks for the semester. To start, we’re digging into a new tool we have at the Writing Center, the Revision Strategies guide. This is a resource specifically for academics at the graduate level and beyond. It collects strategies for approaching writing challenges commonly experienced by academics and researchers, particularly those that arise when we are revising our way from an early draft to a finished product.
This month, we’re focusing on reverse outlining, a strategy for improving the structure of your papers and arguments. Though there are different ways to do it, every kind of reverse outline involves summarizing each paragraph in a piece of writing, then reading through those summaries to determine if your paper, article, or chapter is actually saying what you want it to say. It is an excellent choice for improving the clarity and structure of your argument.
We have three posts on reverse outlining:
- A basic description of how to reverse outline to improve your structure.
- A storyboarding exercise that lets you interact with your reverse outline more visually and spatially.
- A strategy that uses reverse outlining to figure out where your draft is forming natural section breaks.
If you’ve started writing your seminar papers, try these out!
–Emily Price, Writing Consultant
Upcoming Workshops
To learn more and register, please click on the link embedded in each title
Soliciting Effective Feedback: Tuesday, April 9, at 11AM
The Anatomy of a Good Hook: Monday, April 15, at 10AM
Structuring Argument-Based Writing: Tuesday, April 16, at 1PM
And Now, Your Writing Break
We deeply believe that promising yourself a little treat on a writing day makes the job a little sweeter. We’ve done some research, and we think this microwave (and gluten free) cake is an awesome end to a productive day!
Yield: 1 serving
INGREDIENTS
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 egg
- A few drops vanilla extract
- 3 to 4 tablespoons granulated sugar, to taste
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- A pinch of kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon mini chocolate chips (optional)
- Confectioners’ sugar or vanilla ice cream (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Microwave the butter in a microwave-safe mug in 10-second increments until melted, 20 to 30 seconds. Crack the egg into a small bowl; add the vanilla and whisk to combine using a small whisk or fork. Pour the egg mixture into the mug over the butter and whisk to combine.
Step 2
Add the sugar, cocoa powder and salt and whisk until mostly smooth (a few lumps are O.K.). Scrape down the sides the best you can with a spoon or a small silicone spatula. Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips, if desired.
Step 3
Cook in the microwave on high for 1 to 1½ minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Sift a little confectioners’ sugar on top or serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, if desired. Dig in with a spoon.
