Main Library Location
Address: Main Library, Level 2, North Tower, Room 2305
The Main Library Writing Place offers one-on-one writing consultations for all members of the Northwestern community. Our consultants are also available to make class visits to introduce the Writing Place to an entire class.
The Main Writing Place in the University Library focuses on working with undergraduates; however, all students, faculty, and staff are welcome to use this location. Peer tutors are juniors, seniors, and graduate students.
This quarter, all Writing Place consultations will be held online, using a combination of Zoom and Google Docs. For instructions on how to prepare for and launch your online appointment, view and download our online protocol here. The Main Library Writing Place does not offer asynchronous e-tutoring.
When we return to our Library location, you will be able to find us on the second floor of the North tower in Northwestern’s Main Library, Evanston campus. The North tower is also home to the Core and Reserve collections. The room number is 2305. Look for the door with our welcome sign.
For directions to the library the library, look on the Northwestern Campus Map or see the Northwestern Library’s page of maps and directions.
First-Year Seminar Writing Awards
Since 1996 , the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences has been giving awards to the most outstanding papers written in First-Year Seminars. Papers are nominated by Seminar faculty and are judged by a committee comprising Writing Program faculty and student consultants from The Writing Place. The goal of this awards program is to recognize and reward outstanding student writing, to encourage students’ efforts to improve their writing, and to provide a writing resource–both for students, who can consult the papers to get a clear picture of the qualities of an outstanding paper, and for faculty, who can use them to help teach writing concepts.
Each of the papers can be downloaded as a PDF file and read with Adobe’s Acrobat Reader. If you do not already have a copy of Acrobat Reader, you can download it from the Adobe web site. Northwestern students, faculty, and staff can also download it from the Northwestern Library web site. Access to the papers themselves is restricted to members of the Northwestern community. The papers are readable only on the computer; they are not able to be printed out. All papers remain the property of their authors, who retain all rights.
– Previous Award Winners –
2021-2022
Alison Clarke, “The Interdependence of Labor Rights and Environmental Justice.”
Prof. Melissa Rosenzweig, Chicago Environmental Justice
Grace Wang, “How does the transparency/regularity of different counting systems affect young children’s learning of addition?”
Prof. Lance Rips, Concepts of Infinity
Honorable Mention
Kaitlyn Shi, “The Science Behind the Criminalization of Mass Incarceration of African Americans”
Prof. Stephanie Knezz, The Science Behind Oppression
Emmeline Murphy, “Victims of the Victims: Catastrophe, Consciousness, and Claims”
Prof. Roberto Mazza, Jerusalem its History and Politics from 1517 to 2022
Cooper Hanley, “Science v. The Scientist”
Prof. Veronica Berns, Science and the Scientist
2018-2019
John Magloire,”An Abdication of Moral Leadership: America’s Response to the Holocaust“
Prof. Robert Gordon, Did Economics Win the Two World Wars
Carter Makice,”Hybrid Squalor”
Prof. Kelly Wisecup, Alternate Americas
Joshua Tabuena, “Emissions Trading in China”
Prof. K. Marion Suiseeya, Global Environmental Politics
Honorable Mention
Shreyas Iyer, “An Abuse of Power?”
Prof. Julie Lee Merseth, Undocumented Immigrant Politics
2017-2018
Lily Arnpriester, “Globalization in Turkey: A Response through Food”
Prof. Oya Topcuoglu, We Are What We Eat: Turkish Food Culture and Cuisine
Jeremy Brooks, “Global Climate Change Inequity”
Prof. Daniel Horton, Sustainability & Social Justice
Desmond O’Shaughnessy, “Edging towards the Cliff of Climate Catastrophe”
Prof. Kim Suiseeya, Global Environmental Politics
Honorable Mention
William Paik, “I Am Oppressed, But…”
Prof. Nitasha Sharma, Mixed Race Memoir
Eliza Posner, “BDSM in the DSM: Paraphilic Disorders in the DSM-5”
Prof. Ben Gorvine, The Economics and Politics of Mental Health Diagnosis and Treatment
Aditi Rathore,“Closing the Gender Gap in Agriculture is Key to Securing a Brighter Future”
Prof. Sara Hernandez, Why Gender Matters in Economics
– 2016-2017 –
Ella Lombard, “1929 Women’s War”
Prof. Sean Hanretta, “African History through Literature and Film”
Rebecca Zaydlin, “The Power in Powerlessness: A Feminist Reading of Shakespeare’s Othello”
Prof. Jeffrey Masten, “Shakespeare’s Sex”
Honorable Mention
Joseph Badion, “They Don’t Get It”
Prof. Charles Mills, “African American Philosophy”
Rachael Goldberg, “The Oppression in Elections: Patriarchy and Politics”
Prof. Julie Lee Merseth, “Gender, Politics, and Power”
Adrian Lafont-Mueller, “Dissociative Identity Disorder: Validity and Reliability of Diagnosis”
Prof. Benjamin Gorvine, “The Economics and Politics of Mental Health Diagnosis and Treatment”
– 2015-2016 –
Kiyrie Abernethy, “The Revolutionary Spirit in Sense and Sensibility”
Professor Carolina Hotchandani, “Historicizing Austen’s Novels”
Christina Liu, “Mary Astell and the Problem of Mind and Body”
Prof. Sean Ebels Duggan, “Mind and Morals: Excluded Voices
Aidan Perreault, “Terrorism and the Infringement of Civil Liberty”
Professor Axel Mueller, “What Is Democracy?”
Honorable Mention
Jeremy Margolis, “Is Life Without Parole American’s New Death Penalty?”
Professor Zach Sommers, “Crime and Criminology”
Megan Pan, “The Capacity for Freedom”
Professor Baron Reed, “Persons among Other Things”
