National Day on Writing Celebrated at Mississippi College

Writing Center Assistant Director Lingshan Song

Mississippi College is linked to the National Day on Writing on October 20. The National Council of Teachers of English designates that date to showcase the importance of putting words on paper one sentence at a time.

The MC Writing Center at the Leland Speed Library is serving as the 2020 event sponsor on the Clinton campus. But it won’t be just a one-day activity. Writing Center Assistant Director Lingshan Song is challenging all MC Choctaws to polish their writing skills on social media.

Mississippi College will celebrate the National Day on Writing for the week of October 19-25, Song says.

Every October, MC students ignore 21^st Century trends that writing letters is a dying art. During recent years, they have penned as many as 250 letters to people across the USA and up to 17 nations, including China, Australia, India, Saudi Arabia and Japan. Friends of family members are always delighted to see real letters in their mailboxes.

These days, millions of people turn to emails, texts and social media, from Facebook to Twitter or get on cell phones to communicate. When a letter arrives, it is often a bill or junk mail. Surveys show 60 percent of adults have sent fewer than five handwritten letters in the past decade. Other polls show 65 percent of 25 to 34-year-olds rarely pick up a pen – or less than five times a week.

Helping students improve their writing skills is what 35 MC tutors do daily at the MC  Writing Center this fall.

So far this semester, student tutors have completed 340 sessions. That includes 120 in-person sessions and 220 meetings online, Song said.

The Writing Center will sponsor one other major event this fall. It is dubbed the Pumpkin Palooza with plenty of delicious treats on hand. The Pumpkin Palooza festival runs from October 26-31 as Halloween draws near on the Clinton campus.

The MC Writing Center is open for face-to-face sessions with students from Monday to Thursday (9 a.m. until 4 p.m.) and from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Fridays. Online sessions run from Monday to Thursday from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. Tutors assist students with writing for many subjects, such as history, English, nursing and mathematics.

For more details on Writing Center activities, contact Lingshan Song at song00@mc.edu or director Steve Price at sprice@mc.edu.