Starting in spring 2022, the Jones White Writing Center is partnering with the Indiana Free Library to offer a Community Writing Center service.
Our goal with the Community Writing Center is to provide writing support and access to literacy instruction for the broader Indiana community and to provide IUP students with an important opportunity for volunteer service. Our Community Writing Center will offer free tutoring in writing and a series of six workshops in spring 2022. All of these events are free and open to the public. We ask that IUP employees and students share about this service widely!
Community Writing Center: Free Community Literacy Tutoring
Dates: February 23, 2022, 6:00–8:00 p.m. and April 18, 2022, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Volunteer Writing Center tutors offer free, one-on-one tutoring support for any piece of writing and for any writer in a friendly setting at the Indiana Free Library. Community members, both adults and children, are welcome to bring their writing or writing ideas for feedback and support. Writing tutors can assist with idea generation and brainstorming, respond to drafts to support revision, and help community members edit their work.
Our writing support includes but is not limited to:
- Poetry, short stories, longer works, autobiography, idea generation
- Job search documents, including résumé and cover letters
- Scholarship and application essays for college
- Personal writing projects
- Community writing projects
- Business plans and proposals
- Homework and reading support for children
The Community Writing Center is a walk-in service. Please bring your writing with you when you come, and we will work to make sure everyone who attends has a tutorial. Tutorials may last anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on demand.
Our first Community Writing Center will take place on Wednesday, February 23, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Community Room at the Indiana Free Library, 845 Philadelphia Street, Indiana, PA 15701. For questions about the Community Writing Center, please email us at w-center@iup.edu.
Writing Workshops
The Jones White Writing Center and students from the Department of English will also be hosting a series of six workshops for the community. All workshops, unless otherwise noted, take place in the Community Room on the second floor of the Indiana Free Library.
Grant Writing Workshop: Saturday, January 29, 10:00 a.m.–Noon
Presented by Dana Driscoll, Director of the Jones White Writing Center
This workshop provides business owners, nonprofits, and others information on writing a successful grant, including grant searching, writing a grant proposal, and the grant submission process. Due to the ongoing pandemic, this session will be offered online via Zoom.
Creative Writing Workshop: Wednesday, February 9, 7:00–8:00 p.m.
This workshop offers an introduction to creative writing through idea generation approaches to develop a poem or short story.
Comic Writing Workshop: Saturday, February 26, 11:00 a.m.–Noon (for children and teens)
Our Comic Book Writing workshop encourages children and teens to work with dialogue, create backstory for characters, and create a compelling story.
Writing as Healing Workshop: Saturday, March 12, 11:00 a.m.–Noon
Writing can serve as a healthy outlet for healing, and this workshop aims to provide participants with approaches to using writing as healing in their own lives.
Business Writing Basics Workshop: Wednesday, March 23, 7:00–8:00 p.m.
This workshop will offer participants key writing skills for writing/revising a résumé and cover letter for a specific job.
Literature Workshop: Saturday, April 9, 11:00 a.m.–Noon
This workshop offers approaches to reading works of literature and thoughtfully responding to texts through writing.
Please contact w-center@iup.edu with any questions about the Community Writing Center.