Seton Hill University center gets new name, helps students improve writing skills

Hope Albert had a bad habit of using run-on sentences in the papers she turned in for her college courses.

But that problem, and others that hampered the Washington Township senior’s written compositions at Seton Hill University, are in the past tense, thanks to help she received through one of the Greensburg school’s longtime programs.

Albert is pursuing a double major in music education and vocal performance. She has been a regular visitor to the university’s Reeves library and learning commons, where she takes advantage of assistance available at the newly renamed Jacqueline Weinmeister Brownlee Writing Center.

Seton Hill officials marked the center’s new name Thursday, the same day students moved in for the fall semester.

“The center really helped me to find what I was trying to say without pushing words out,” Albert said. “Now I stop and think, ‘What do I want to say?’ not ‘What do I have to say?’ I’m not just putting down words that I think my teacher wants me to say.”

The writing center’s mission is to offer Seton Hill students help in developing their writing so they can communicate effectively at college and in their careers. The center provides one-on-one assistance, classroom and campuswide workshops and online resources that are aimed at helping students make better use of the written English language.

Albert started getting “C” grades on many of the papers she completed for her Seton Hill classes. So, during her sophomore year, it was suggested she get help from the writing center.

“Now I use the center for every single thing I have to write,” she said, indicating the staff there “were telling me less and less things were wrong with my papers. I was making progress and not making the same mistakes. Now I’m getting almost perfect grades on my papers.”

Albert acknowledged she uses punctuation loosely when she sends text messages. “I’m not necessarily using it correctly,” she said.

When switching to more formal coursework, Albert said, the writing center staff “helped me to not feel embarrassed if I wasn’t sure how to use certain punctuation. They made me feel that everybody can learn more.”

Seton Hill’s writing center has been helping students since the 1970s. The center’s director, Kim Pennesi, has been with the program for 30 years, beginning as a student helping her peers with their writing.

She pointed out the center’s complement of up to 15 student writing consultants isn’t intended as a proofreading service for other students who come seeking assistance.

“We want to encourage students to develop their writing skills and provide them strategies they can use based on things we’re seeing in their papers,” Pennesi said.

Pennesi said many students who are comfortable using spellcheck tools on their computers and autocorrect functions on their smartphones might miss errors when proofreading their writing.

Emily Wierszewski, who chairs the English program at Seton Hill, believes students are writing more, and more fluently, than their counterparts in previous generations because of their regular communication via the internet and social media platforms.

She said they’re also more aware of the need for tailoring their writing style to a given audience.

“Talking on Facebook with their parents is different from talking on Snapchat with their friends,” she said.

But Wierszewski noted Seton Hill freshmen might have seen their high school English instruction curtailed by the covid-19 pandemic and should especially benefit from help at the writing center.

Workshops the center offers for first-year students touch on topics they frequently find challenging.

“Use of commas is always a popular one. And shifts in verb tense,” Pennesi said.

After general English instruction in high school, incoming Seton Hill students may seek help mastering the particular writing style required for creating academic papers in their chosen field of study.

“I’ve done several workshops on effective scientific writing,” Pennesi said.

Albert needed help formatting her papers according to the American Psychological Association style, which is used for writing in several disciplines, including education.

Cailyn Keiser, a junior English education major from Ephrata, joined the center as a writing consultant last fall.

“Instead of telling students what to do to make their papers better, we get them to think through the problems they’re having with their writing,” Keiser said.

Albert often has met with the writing center staff via Zoom. Pennesi noted that option was introduced during the pandemic and will continue to be offered because of its popularity.

Pennesi said the center has gained whiteboards and is slated to get additional computers.

The renaming of the writing center is because of an undisclosed gift from Robert Brownlee and Jacqueline Weinmeister Brownlee of Plantation, Fla., in honor of their 60th wedding anniversary June 16.

Robert Brownlee, a former police sergeant who started several companies that produce barricades, is the nephew of the late Sister Francesca Brownlee, the founding dean of Seton Hill. In 2018, Robert Brownlee made a seven-figure commitment to the university to create The Robert M. Brownlee Mathematics Enrichment Center and The Robert M. Brownlee Endowed Scholarship.