Help, Help, Everywhere

Did you know MC has multiple free tutoring centers?  There is one on every campus: in the HS building, room 150, in Germantown, Macklin Tower, room 020, in Rockville and Resource Center, room 105 in Takoma Park.

You can go to the writing center as a walk-in, or schedule an appointment ahead of time on-line. To schedule an appointment online  you have to create an account, and then choose which campus you want to book at. It then gives you options of times and you can tell them what you are hoping to gain form your visit. However, appointments must be made at least 24 hours ahead of time.

You may be wondering “what can the WRL center help me with?”  So fear not, I am going to tell you. The writing, reading and language center can help with any writing assignments, reading questions as well as foreign language help. I have brought an essay in before and had a tutor go over it with me. They will not write your essay for you, but they will let you know where they think you could work on improvement (for me it is often commas). I have also gone in when I needed some help in Spanish and my professor happened to be there tutoring. So that is another unique thing about MC; often teachers will tutor in the WRL center.

The idea of a tutoring session can be a bit intimidating to some, but luckily, MC provides some alternatives to the one-on-one sessions. There is virtual tutoring through MC. If you have a busy schedule, this option is super helpful. All you need is internet access and Skype. The WRL center also has some group tutoring sessions for Spanish, as well.

The WRL center does not just offer tutoring services though.  The WRL center has a computer lab as well, where you can get work done as long as there is no class in there. The center also offers workshops throughout the semester. These workshops cover everything from rhetorical analysis, to annotated bibliographies and much more. There are also workshops on learning the PowerPoint basics and how to write a resume and cover letter.

What’s the best part of the WRL center? The staff members. The staff is extremely kind and helpful. I was extremely nervous the first time I went to the center, but the staff member walked me through creating an account and the whole tutoring process.

College can be tough, especially as one thing piles on top of the other. Luckily for us, MC has many options to help us succeed. I urge you to take advantage of the writing, reading and language centers at MC and their wonderful services. We may not always need to know how to find the z-value for a statistic, but we will always need to know the correct place to put a comma.