The University of Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre is a hub of communication and writing practice, support, and research on campus. Writing a paper? Designing a portfolio? Giving a presentation? From brainstorming to revision, understanding your assignment to presenting your work, we are here to support you in any discipline, at any stage of the communication process.
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About the WCC
News
Custom Workshops for Courses and Student Groups Available
The Course-integrated Support (CIS) program supports instructors, student associations, and research groups in writing and multimodal practices in their respective virtual and/or classroom learning environment.
IBPOC WCC Workshops: Writing Prompts
The IBPOC Writing and Communication Workshops are spaces where graduate students identifying as Indigenous, Black, and people of color can come together to form a supportive community of writers. This is an intentional IBPOC-only virtual space. Join us on June 23 from 5:30-6:30 pm for our first IBPOC Writing and Communication Workshop, Writing Prompts. You can join the IBPOC writing groups channel through WCC’s Teams.
https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/current-graduate-students/waterloowrites
Appointment Availability
The WCC will have fewer appointments available for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from June 14 to 16 as some of our staff are attending the Consortium on Graduate Communication conference this week. Drop-in and evening and weekend appointments are still available.
Events
Black, Indigenous and Racialized Students' Writing Café
The Black, Indigenous and Racialized Students' Writing Café is a social writing group. Unlike traditional peer feedback-based writing groups, we don’t read each other’s finished writing: instead, we write together to create a community of writers who can cheer each other on during what is often an isolating, difficult journey!
Just like our Wednesday in-person grad writing cafés, the Black, Indigenous and Racialized Students' Writing Café uses the Pomodoro Method to organize writing sessions into smaller, more manageable chunks of focused writing with frequent breaks. As a participant, then, you’ll still get several 30-minute blocks of writing with short breaks to help you re-focus, stretch, get coffee/ tea/water, and chat with the other participants, but this group is designed specifically for Black, Indigenous and racialized students (at any level, grad or undergrad) and postdoctoral scholars.
This group is informed by anti-racist pedagogies and hosted by WCC staff who understand the intimate relationship between writing and identity first-hand. Join to connect to a supportive community of peers, share your challenges and successes, or just to get some focused writing done!
When: Tuesdays from 3:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m. from May 12 to August 25 (no session May 26 and June 16)
Where: South Campus Hall (SCH) 228F
In-person Grad Writing Cafés
Looking for a writing community? Grab a coffee and get writing! Join our network of graduate student writers at the in-person Writing Café! Meet other writers, stay on track, and make progress in your work. Writing doesn’t have to be solitary!
Building sustainable writing habits starts with structure and community. Writers tackling a big writing project often struggle with isolation or a lack of structure that leaves them procrastinating. If that sounds familiar, then writing groups can help. This social space with an established structure for getting writing done can help you feel connected to your peers while practicing effective and sustainable writing habits. It’s open to graduate students, postdocs and faculty.
We use the Pomodoro Method to organize writing sessions into smaller, more manageable chunks of focused writing with frequent breaks. As a participant, you’ll get several 30-minute blocks of writing time as well as short breaks to help you re-focus, stretch, and chat with the other participants.
These cafés are also open to any graduate student, postdoctoral scholar, or faculty member at the University of Waterloo.
When: Wednesdays from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. from May 13 to August 26 (no session on June 10, 17, and July 1)
Where: The GSA Grad Lounge (SLC 3216)
Black, Indigenous and Racialized Students' Writing Café
The Black, Indigenous and Racialized Students' Writing Café is a social writing group. Unlike traditional peer feedback-based writing groups, we don’t read each other’s finished writing: instead, we write together to create a community of writers who can cheer each other on during what is often an isolating, difficult journey!
Just like our Wednesday in-person grad writing cafés, the Black, Indigenous and Racialized Students' Writing Café uses the Pomodoro Method to organize writing sessions into smaller, more manageable chunks of focused writing with frequent breaks. As a participant, then, you’ll still get several 30-minute blocks of writing with short breaks to help you re-focus, stretch, get coffee/ tea/water, and chat with the other participants, but this group is designed specifically for Black, Indigenous and racialized students (at any level, grad or undergrad) and postdoctoral scholars.
This group is informed by anti-racist pedagogies and hosted by WCC staff who understand the intimate relationship between writing and identity first-hand. Join to connect to a supportive community of peers, share your challenges and successes, or just to get some focused writing done!
When: Tuesdays from 3:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m. from May 12 to August 25 (no session May 26 and June 16)
Where: South Campus Hall (SCH) 228F
Blog
If punctuation marks were people
Punctuation marks. We use them to form our sentences, to turn our incoherent thoughts into organized prose. But what if these signs and symbols had minds of their own?
A writer's mind: visit today!
Visit the place where the magic begins and the fun never ends. Every day is a nail-biting adventure inside A WRITER'S MIND™!
Breath-taking beauty awaits you in this rainbow-land of fantastic ideas and colour-splashed coping strategies. Consider how grand it might be to pitch-tent upon the blissful symbolic plains of the subconscious.
Thesaurus abuse: or a gross misappropriation of lexicon
A thesaurus groups together words that are similar in meaning. It exists for those tip-of-the-tongue moments when the right word seems just out of reach: “Gah! I need another word for something that’s pretentious … to be pretentious, to put on airs … Ah! An affectation!”