We work with students at all stages of their academic career, from first-year students in introductory courses to graduating seniors in capstone courses. We also work with writers at any stage of the writing process to understand assignment requirements, brainstorm ideas, further develop content, help with formatting (APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.), and polish their prose.

 

The Ott Memorial Writing Center offers help on more than just English papers — although we welcome those! Our tutors represent a range of majors and are prepared to respond to writing across the disciplines, so Marquette undergrads can bring any project at all, including lab reports, group projects, personal statements, and multimodal projects and presentations. We further offer assistance on projects that may or may not be required for classes, including fiction and poetry, resumes, and cover letters. We truly enjoy the variety of projects writers bring in to discuss. Learn more about the tutors we have on staff

 

The Ott is for all writers who care about writing. All writers—successful writers, anxious writers, prolific writers, struggling writers—benefit from talking about their work in progress with an interested, experienced reader. We even started the Ott Scholars Program (OSP) for writers who decide they like regular (e.g., weekly, every other week) meetings with the same tutor.  And we have a SWELL program for English language learners who'd like to practice their spoken and / or written English.

 

We celebrate writers and writing all year, through a menu of special events. In fall, we dedicate the month of October to Ottoberfest, when we host competitions and offer special prizes to participating writers. In spring, we observe the Feast of St. Cuthbert, the patron saint of Otters, with an open house on March 20^th, and we collaborate with the MU Libraries to host a day-long transcribe-a-thon on February 14^th in honor of author and activist Frederick Douglass.

 

We hope you’ll get involved. Each year, we work with students to create “on demand” programming for clubs and student groups. We’re equally happy to support the work of informal groups of friends and writing buddies, whether the focus is sorority philanthropy, D&D character building, or revising a collaborative novel. We also recruit new tutors each fall, and we welcome writers to join us.