Gonzaga University

Gonzaga University | 502 East Boone Avenue | Spokane, WA 99258-0102 | (800) 986.9585

Writing Center

Mission Statement: The Writing Center strives to serve all writers in the academic community at Gonzaga University.  The main goal of the Writing Center is to provide free, non-credit learning support for student writers of all abilities as they produce writing for audiences in curricular, co-curricular, and pre-professional settings.  The tutoring philosophy entails treating every student with respect and approaching each tutoring session as an opportunity for facilitating critical but sensitive dialogue about students' writing processes and writing.  Toward this end, students are welcome to visit the Writing Center at any stage of their writing project, including brainstorming, drafting, revising, and proofreading.  While the Writing Center is not an editing service, tutors are available to help writers develop strategies for self-editing.  In addition, the Writing Center's website (http://www.gonzaga.edu/writingcenter) provides online resources for writers. Students may come to the Writing Center by their own choice and by instructor referral.

Location: The Writing Center is located just inside the main entrance of Foley Center Library, in the glassed-in area adjacent to the 24-hour Study Lounge.  Come in for a visit!

Are you a Gonzaga student interested in tutoring?  If so, please send an email to Dr. Eliason.  Thank you.

Hours for Fall 2009:

 Online Resources
Mondays 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Tuesdays 9-7
Wednesdays 9-7
Thursdays 9-7
Fridays
 9-3
Sundays
 5-10 p.m.                      (Closed Saturdays)
Search Sites for Research
  • Google. Ranks sites by their popularity and length of visitors' browsing at the site. Places sponsored links off to the side; does not allow paid placement
    • Google Groups Search Usenet newsgroup discussions from 1995 on; formerly DejaNews.
    • Google Images. Search for images on the web.
    • Google Scholar. This new search feature from Google finds scholarly articles about the search term, although its range seems more limited than those of the subject-specific database search tools available at Foley.
    • Google Books . Searches for phrases or names in books. Some books are available online (full text).
General Purpose Search Sites
  • Gigablast. According to Scripting News, this new site uses a searching algorithm that is different from Google's.
  • Alltheweb. Claims to search more web pages than any other search engine. Has recently begun to identify sponsored links.  
  • About.com. Commercial search site with human "guides" to content areas.
  • Yahoo. Subject tree directory with useful links selected by Yahoo personnel (not computers). Update: Yahoo has now gone to a "paid inclusion" model, so its results may be influenced by fees paid by companies.
  • Ask.com.Lists sponsored links first but clearly marks them as sponsored links.
  • Dogpile. Compiles what it says are the best of Google, Yahoo, and Ask results.
  • AltaVista. Lists its paid rankings first under "Products and Services." 
  • Metacrawler. Venerable site lists commercial links along with others.
  • Search.com. Metasearch site; puts sponsored links first but marks them as such.
Help with Writing top
ESL Links top
Reference Sites
Miscellaneous Resources
  • Gonzaga subscribes to Turnitin.com; your instructor may ask you to post your paper to that site or may submit your papers, depending on the policy outlined in your syllabus.
  • Anti-spam Registry (http://registry.waisp.org/). Washington State has strong anti-spam laws. If you are a resident of Washington State, you can register your e-mail address, which gives you certain rights under the law against  spammers.
  • New York Times Newsroom Navigator. This is the page that the New York Times newsroom uses as its gateway to the Web.  It includes links to a host of search engines, including some unusual ones, reference and news sites, newspapers and magazines online, and much more.
  • Proofreader's and Editor's Symbols. Just what it says it is: a handy online guide to the marks used by editors and proofreaders.
  • Arts and Letters Daily. Newspapers, magazines, columnists, and more.
  • Yale C/AIMStyle Guide. Comprehensive guide for creating web pages.
Evaluating Web Sites
Useful Free Software and Sites
  • Toolbars
    • The Google Toolbar adds a search box and a popup blocker to Internet Explorer.
    • Merriam-Webster toolbar puts a search box for looking up words in the Merriam-Webster College Dictionary on your browser toolbar--very handy.
  • Citing Sources
    • Scholar's Aid Lite is a freeware program that allows you to keep notes in order and helps you to create bibliographies in proper format.
    • Landmark Citation Machine. Copy and paste your references into the forms at this page, and it will automatically generate APA- or MLA-formatted bibliographic citations.
    • Zotero is a free application that works with the web browser Firefox. It will download and format citations, and it can store articles and web pages for your research, too.
  • General Software Downloads are available from Tucows, ZDNet, CNET's Download.com, and CWSInternet. At these sites, you can download utilities such as WS_FTP, ZoneAlarm, and other useful software.
  • Sharing Pictures Online .Flickr , Hello , and Photobucket are three sites that allow you to share photos and are integrated with blogging sites such as LiveJournal.
  • RSS feed readers. An RSS feed (or Atom, XML, or other forms of feeds) allows you to read the updates to weblogs and news sites from one convenient page without ads or spam. You can find popular blogs and newsfeeds at Technorati, Google Blogsearch , and other sites. Here are some popular feed readers:
    • Bloglines is a web-based feed reader that includes a good search feature for blogs. It also has an easy-to-post blog feature and a desktop notification system. It is very easy to use.
    • Blogstreet is another web-based feed reader; it includes a ranking system as well.
    • MyYahoo is an easy feed reader to use if you have a Yahoo! account.
    • Sage is a downloadable feedreader extension for Firefox.
  • Blogging and social networking sites. You already know about Facebook and MySpace, but among the many free blogging sites available are Blogger, LiveJournal, Wordpress, and Mo'time.
  • Miscellaneous Useful Tools
    • Make PDF files. PDFCreator is shareware (donation requested but not required) that allows you to convert Microsoft documents (including Publisher files) into Adobe .pdf format.
    • See if Amazon or B & N books are available in Foley. If you use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer as your web browser, and if you look up books on the Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble sites, this bookmarklet can help you to see whether a book is available at Foley Library.
      • To use it, drag it (don't click on it) to your toolbar in Firefox. (You only have to do this once; it will stay on your toolbar.)
      • Once you're on the Amazon.com or bn.com page of the book you want to look up, click on the button "Bookmarklet for Foley" on your toolbar. A new window will open that will tell you whether the book is available. (Created with John Udell's Library Lookup generator.)
    • Use all your IM addresses from one program. Trillian is an instant messaging client that allows you to use AIM, MSN Messenger, ICQ, and Yahoo! Messenger all in one program.
For Fun
  • FirstLines.  Test yourself to see if you recognize the first lines of literary works.
  • Word of the Day from the Oxford English Dictionary site.
For Tutors and Prospective Tutors

Please contact Dr. John Eliason, Director of Composition and the Writing Center, if you have questions about the Writing Center or suggestions for this page. Thank you.


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