Salt Lake Community College has a playground of useful resources for students to discover and use. However, there may be some resources that students might not know of.
The Open Collection of Student Writing is an online database full of writing from all course levels and subjects across the SLCC campuses.
In the database, students can filter through an area, program, types of writing, course level, year and English-speaking abilities in order to find the examples needed. When citing a source from the OCSW, the student must credit the student author and the OCSW.
Unlike other writing resource centers on campus, this database is based solely online.
Instead of going to a writing center, where it may be crowded and the student can only get help during certain time-frames, the OCSW is available whenever and wherever. Right now, the database contains over 300 examples of student writing.
“The Student Writing and Reading Center may be a better resource for one-on-one help with grammatical errors and such,” says Carmina Gray, an intern with the Writing Across the College program.
“The Open Collection is online, open all the time and for any ideas you need,” adds Gray.
Students are encouraged to submit their work as it may give a sense of pride and, most importantly, looks good on a resume.
If you’re interested in submitting your work, there are some guidelines for doing so. To submit an assignment or project online, it must have received an “A” grade and the OCSW might contact the instructor for proof.
“You also get a certificate from the Open Collection for every single piece of writing you enter,” Gray says. “Since it’s an internal SLCC award, you can put it in your eportfolio.”
The OCSW is unique because unlike instructor example handouts, the database is inclusive to students.
The filter option becomes handy when you need to find examples within a certain class. Students can now search by course level and find samples that include what the instructor expect and what the class entails.
If you’re someone who has yet worked up the courage to get help from going to writing centers, remember that the Open Collection of Student Writing is a great resource on campus that is free to use.
Visit OCSW for more information.
