Mini Writing Lab benefits students

By Elise Sakievich, Scroll

NAMUUN ZULKHUU | Scroll Photography

Students can get the same help from the Mini Writing Lab that they can get at the Writing Center. The lab is open during Writing Center hours
from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and late hours from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.

Last semester, J.P. Sloop, instructor and Writing Center administrator, started the Mini Writing
Lab at BYU-Idaho in an effort to offer all students the writing help they need.
The Mini Writing Lab is an outlet of the Writing Center on campus, but with higher availability,
Sloop said. The office is located in the David O. McKay Library in room 143, next to the
elevator by the McKay Commons.
Sloop said the goal of the lab is to offer quick writing help.
The intent is to help students, Sloop said. If I were a student writing a paper downstairs and I
had a question, I probably wouldnt go through the maze to get to the Writing Center. But if I had
someone right across the hall, Id be more likely to go ask.
Sloop said some of the questions the Mini Writing Lab can answer include Does this citation
look okay?, How does this sentence sound? and Does my thesis make sense?
You can stand up from your computer, walk over, ask them and go sit back down, Sloop said.

Before working at BYU-I, Sloop used to be the Writing Center director at Texas A&MCommerce.
Sloop said the library there stayed open very late. He ran the writing center, which assisted
students who were writing papers late at night.
I knew it couldnt work exactly like that here, Sloop said. But, I realized that in the Commons
and other areas students were here late, and I thought we could apply that idea here.
Laura Carter, a senior studying English education, spent last semester teaching English in
Thailand. She said she came back to a much better Writing Center than the one she left.
The Writing Center is like Utah always under construction, Carter said.
Carter started working at the Writing Center in Fall Semester 2012. Carter said a lot has changed
since then, especially in the way that tutors
are trained.
I became the training supervisor and worked really closely with Brother Sloop and Brother
Lawrence, talking about how we could create a good supervisor structure so that the supervision
was more dispersed, Carter said.
Carter said before that, only one supervisor did the training. Now there are four supervisors, so
more aspects of training can be covered.
The bottom line is our tutors are dramatically better trained now, in grammar and in listening
and, well, everything, Carter said.
Sloop said both the inner workings of the Writing Center and the way things are run online are
different. There are more online sessions, especially since Sheldon Lawrence, director of the
Writing Center, joined.
Sloop said Lawrence is in charge of the online tutoring.
Since Brother Lawrence started, a lot has changed the way we approach writing, our theory
behind what the Writing Center does, Sloop said. With increasing online sessions and the mini
lab, we are trying to reach everyone.
Carter said she hears many students say they do not know how to write well, but that the Writing
Center offers help with basic principles like grammar, structure and clarity which can benefit
everyone.
Most students struggle with MLA or APA style, thesis statements, organization and grammar,
Sloop said.

Carter said students always say they need help with grammar, but they are much better at it than
they think.
Once they understand the rules, they improve really rapidly. They just need someone to explain
the mathematics of it, Carter said.
Carter said she still brings her papers to the Writing Center. Sloop said he and Lawrence bring in
their own work for tutors to review as well.
Everyone can use a second set of eyes, even if youre a good writer, Sloop said. Come to the
Writing Center.