The Graduate Writing Center

Our Mission

The Graduate Writing Center seeks to empower graduate students at MIIS by providing them with useful, immediate takeaways from our tutoring sessions while supporting them with tools and suggestions to independently improve their own academic and professional skills. We assist writers of all disciplines and of all language backgrounds to strengthen their academic skills. We support student writers in recognizing their own strengths and challenges throughout the writing process in order to promote reflection and professional development.

Appointments 

• The GWC only runs on appointments and does not accept any drop-ins. Book an appointment using your MIIS/Middlebury e-mail address for your one-on-one session.
• You are limited to one appointment per week. In cases of when there’s more than one appointment within the same week, your earliest appointment will be kept and the other(s) will be canceled.  
• Please e-mail your product to your tutor at least 24 hours before your appointment. The GWC’s accomplished tutors read your products ahead of time, so long as they are sent 24 hours in advance. Don’t worry if a draft is not “perfect” or “finished.” Send it along anyway; that’s what we are here for!
• Once an appointment is made through the system, you will receive a confirmation email about your appointment. Our tutors will also get in touch with you to request your paper and make the necessary arrangements if your appointment will be held on Zoom. 
• If you think you won’t be able to make it to your appointment, please make sure you cancel it within no less than 24-hours’ notice to avoid a late cancellation/no-show penalty. You can cancel your appointment by following the instructions on the appointment confirmation e-mail. Three no-shows to non-canceled appointments will result in prohibition from making any further appointments at the GWC for the rest of the semester. Exceptions may be made to this policy when there is an excuse (e.g., sickness).

Tutoring Sessions

• During a tutoring session, you will have 50 minutes with your tutor to discuss your product. Our tutors will ask you questions about your writing goals and concerns and guide you through the process.
• You can ask for help from our tutors on a variety of scholarly and professional genres. These might range from your academic course work (e.g., research papers, analytical essays, policy memos) to more professional products such as conference submissions, op-eds, grant proposals, journal articles, presentations, blog posts, etc.
• Your session focuses on you and your needs. Remember that the writing tutors are committed to helping you become a better writer, but they are not going to “fix” your paper. Tutors help you brainstorm ideas, compose outlines, structure your paper, and adhere to stylistic conventions of their field (e.g., MLA, APA, or Chicago).

Hours

• The tutoring sessions will be scheduled Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays 4–8pm PST, depending on our tutors’ availability.
• We are open fall and spring semesters. Tutoring sessions are not available over the summer or during holidays/breaks. 

Meet Our Tutors

Thea Louise Thomaseth Bugge: 

Thea, (pronounced T-eh-ya) is currently getting her master’s in Public Administration. She has a year of experience tutoring students in the writing center of her undergraduate college (Salem State University) and has tutored both undergraduate and graduate students. She speaks both English and Norwegian fluently, and is most comfortable helping students with research papers, persuasive papers such as op-eds and policy briefs, analytic papers, and essays. The citation styles she is most comfortable with are MLA and APA. Finally, she is open to do both online and in person tutoring.

Willa Murre:

Willa is currently pursuing a Master’s in Translation & Interpretation with French as her main language, while also maintaining her fluency in German. Before coming to MIIS, she taught English as a Second Language for about 10 years, working mostly with business professionals and academics in the United States, Europe, and southeast Asia. Her students have come from a broad range of professional backgrounds including sociology, pharmaceuticals, e-commerce, sustainability management, and civil law. She will be able to help you with the structure and style of your writing, as well as metacognitive strategies for overcoming challenges during the writing process. She is comfortable with the following genres: persuasive texts, academic journal articles, research papers, précis writing (summaries), and reflective essays. She is happy to meet with you either in-person or online.

Nancy Kwang Johnson:

Nancy Kwang Johnson is currently pursuing her Master’s in International Policy & Development, she also has her MAT-TESOL (USC), MPA, MA, PhD (Cornell University, Government), and was the Founding Executive Director of M.A. in International Affairs program (University of New York Tirana), has two decades of higher education experience in Albania, Canada, France, Senegal, Serbia, and the U.S. Nancy Kwang, a Kathryn Wasserman Conflict Transformation Fellow (2022), is currently pursuing her fourth master’s degree in the International Development Policy program with a specialization in Language (French). 

Nancy Kwang taught a freshman writing seminar entitled, “Storytelling in the Social Sciences” in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at Colgate University as a Visiting Assistant Professor. As the Social Sciences and Humanities Division Chair and Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of New York Tirana (Albania), Nancy Kwang worked with undergraduates and graduate students from Albania, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Kosovo, Lesotho, Macedonia, Oman, Serbia, and Turkey, on writing assignments - using English as a foreign language - within the social sciences and humanities.   

As a thesis adviser (for undergraduates and graduate students) and a member of the IGI Global editorial board (2021), Nancy Kwang specializes in persuasive essays, research papers, theses and peer-reviewed publications. Her publications include book chapters and peer-reviewed articles in the social sciences and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) disciplines. Nancy Kwang envisions the tutoring sessions as Writing Learning Circles. As a non-judgmental circle keeper, Nancy Kwang strives to: facilitate the writing process, inspire tutees to tell stories - in their own words - and empower tutees to become autonomous writers. 

Workshops

The GWC will offer workshops throughout the semester. Please follow us here for updates and how to sign up!

Previous Workshops

Watch the Zotero Workshop here! 

Watch the Academic Presentations Workshop here!

Watch the Academic Integrity Workshop here!

Contact

Please email us if you have any questions.