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The Student Learning Commons blog is your online writing and learning community


Got Assignments? Get the Assignment Calculator!

Published by Julia Lane

It's that time of semester when assignment deadlines can start to feel like they are piling up on you. And, it can be especially hard to get down to work when the sun is shining! 

Let the assignment calculator help you to break down your assignments into manageable steps. That's just good project management! 

Six Word Stories -- new semester edition

Published by Julia Lane

The six word story initiative invites members of the SFU community to celebrate their "excellent mistakes." 

In these six word stories, SFU students share their procrastination-related mistakes and words of wisdom to help you get your summer semester off to a productive and healthy start. 

The common comma: Part 2

image of a comma
Published by Julia Lane

Welcome back to the wonderful world of commas!

SLC Writing Coordinator Amanda Goldrick-Jones, PhD, helps us understand the "unwanted comma," or when NOT to use commas in our writing. 

Missed Part 1? Check it out here

The common comma: Part 1

Published by Julia Lane

Perhaps you are starting to gear up for term paper writing? If so, you might be wondering when you are REALLY supposed to be using commas...

SLC Writing Coordinator Amanda Goldrick-Jones, PhD, returns to help us understand that common piece of punctuation, the comma... and maybe, just maybe, how to save our relationships? 

Glossary of grammar terms

Published by Julia Lane

It's a New Year and it's time for a new installment of our Grammar Camp series! 

SLC Writing Coordinator Amanda Goldrick-Jones, PhD, is back with a glossary of useful grammar terms to help you with your writing... and with breaking the ice at your next party! 

I'm from...

Published by Julia Lane

“Hi, how are you?”

“I'm doing well. How about you?”

“I'm good too. Are you from here? Where are you from?”

In this submission to the SLC Multilingual Story Hub, Sneha Ralli digs into this familiar exchange and wonders about the ways that asking where someone is from can serve to accentuate our differences and interrupt one's sense of cultural belonging.  

Sneha Ralli is a PhD student at SFU who was born in Delhi and raised in Mumbai, India. Sneha participated in Dr. Timothy Mossman's non-credit course Academic Grammar and Writing for Multilingual Learners during the Fall 2018 semester. 

Filling the gap

Published by Julia Lane

In this submission to the SLC Multilingual Story Hub, Dr. Jean-François Bruxelle explores the elements that shape his own French identity, and realizes that he "is French not only because [he] was born in France and grew up in France, but also because [he] expresses [his] French culture and that his attitude corresponds to an external definition of 'being French.'"  

Dr. Jean-François Bruxelle holds a postdoc at SFU and participated in Dr. Timothy Mossman's non-credit course Academic Grammar and Writing for Multilingual Learners during the Fall 2018 semester.