MPC's Reading and Writing Center empowers students by offering a welcoming environment for developing communication skills. Services include free in-person and online tutoring in writing, research, ESL conversation, and computer assistance. Students can improve reading, writing, vocabulary, and study skills through self-paced sessions.
Individualized Appointments & Essay Drop-offs
First Time in the RWC?
If it's your first time at the Reading & Writing Center, you will need to register for a free, noncredit tracking class, ENGL 400. We also encourage you to add the RWC Canvas Shell to your Canvas Dashboard.
RWC Offerings
- 1-1 Appointments: 25 or 50-minute sessions (shorter if necessary) for reading or writing help, available online or in person
- Essay Drop-Off: Submit essays for feedback within 24 hours (or Monday if submitted on Friday or the weekend)
- Free Assistance: Help in writing, research, ESL conversation, and computer use (ENGL 400)
- Self-Paced Sessions: Improving reading, writing, vocabulary, or study skills (ENGL 400)
- Technology Access: Scanners, Microsoft Office, WEPA printer, and assistive software
- Skill Sessions & DLAs: Writing, study skills, and small group boosters
LIMITS: In an effort to serve as many as possible, the RWC limits students to one synchronous appointment per day (five 25-minute appointments or three 50-minute appointments per week) and up to three essay drop-offs per week.
Boosting Student Success!
Additional Resources to Build Skills
The Sentence
- Apostrophes
- Avoiding Fragments & Run-ons (Comma Splices & Fused Sentences)
- Clauses
- Commas
- Commas with Adjective Clauses & Appositives
- Commas with Coordinating Conjunctions & Adverb Clauses
- Conditionals
- Conjunctions: Adverbial (Conjunctive Adverbs)
- Conjunctions: Chart of Comparisons
- Conjunctions: Coordinating
- Conjunctions: Correlative
- Conjunctions: Subordinating
- Gerunds
- Identifying & Correcting Fragments
- Infinitives
- Modals (Helping Verbs)
- Nouns
- Parallel Structure
- Participial Phrases
- Prepositional Phrases
- Pronouns
- Quotation Marks
- Semicolons and Colons
- Subject/Verb Agreement
- Transitions
- Verb Tenses: Consistency of Use
- Verb Tenses: Simple Present vs. Present Progressive
- Verb Tenses: Talking about the Past
- Verbs/Verb Tenses
The Essay
- Adjective Clauses
- Articles, Lesson 1
- Articles, Lesson 2
- Connectors of Cause & Effect
- Connectors of Contrast
- Future Tenses
- Future Time Clauses
- Gerunds & Infinitives
- Non-Progressive Verbs
- Noun Clauses
- Noun Phrases - Appositives
- Participial Adjectives
- Parts of Speech
- Past Progressive & Simple Past
- Phrases Overview
- Prefixes & Suffixes
- Prepositional Phrases
- Prepositions - Six Places We Find Them
- Present Perfect
- Present Progressive
- Sentence Variety
- Tag Questions
- Topic Sentences
Reading Skill Sheets
- Active Reading Strategies
- Annotating
- Approaching New Words
- Context Clues
- Highlighting and Annotating
- Main Idea
- Mapping
- Paraphrasing
- Patterns of Organization
- Reading Your Textbook
- Summarizing
- Topic
- Topic vs. Main Idea
- Transition Words
- Word Parts: Prefixes, Root Word, and Suffixes
- Writing a Formal Summary
- Writing an Informal Summary
- Annotating and Highlighting
- Annotating and Highlighting
- Concept Mapping
- Context Clues: Introduction
- Context Clues: Definition, Restatement, and Example
- Context Clues: Contrast and General Knowledge
- Formal Summary
- Informal Summary
- Main Ideas
- Organizational Patterns: Time Order and Listing
- Organizational Patterns: Definition and Classification
- Organizational Patterns: Cause/Effect and Compare/Contrast
- Organizational Patterns: Primary and Combined
- Paraphrasing
- Reading Your Textbook
- Supporting Details
- Topic
- Understanding a Syllabus
- Analyzing Arguments (from Snap Language)
- Connotative vs Denotative Language (from YouTube)
- Fact vs Opinion (from YouTube)
- Implied Main Ideas (from Townsend Press)