Flanner Community Writing Center
Flanner House and the
Marian University Writing Center have partnered to bring you the
Flanner Community Writing Center, a public access writing support center open to all Central Indiana residents. The Flanner Community Writing Center is located inside the Ujamaa Community Bookstore on the Flanner House campus, 2424 Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. Street, Indianapolis, IN 46208.
The Flanner Community Writing Center invites Indianapolis residents to collaborate with writing consultants on workplace, school-based, and personal writing. Our range of services offered include workshops, book clubs, writing groups, and individual
consultations. All services are provided free of charge.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our Summer 2022 hours are:
- Monday: 4-6 p.m.
- Tuesday: 5-6 p.m.
- Wednesday: 4-7 p.m.
- Thursday: 3-6 p.m.
A community writing center is a place that invites everyone to talk, work, and collaborate on writing and written literacies. It’s a place where writers talk about writing, practice strategies, ask questions, exchange ideas and suggestions, and increase effectiveness and confidence in personal, school, and workplace writing. A community writing center is like a library except instead of checking out books, people work on writing their own books, letters, websites, and essays.
Anyone between the ages of 10-100. Our services are provided free of charge to Indianapolis residents.
The Flanner Community Writing Center is located inside of the Ujamaa Bookstore on Flanner House’s campus at 2424 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St.The center is accessible byIndyGo routes #34 & #15.
When you visit a writing consultant, you should bring the writing prompt (if there is one), any drafts that may exist, and any notes or materials that will assist you during your writing session.
- When you visit with a writing consultant, you should expect to be treated with respect and compassion. Our writing consultants will first listen and talk with you to learn about concerns and goals you may have about your writing and writing tasks. Then, writing consultants will work with you to chart an agenda and create a plan for the session and future sessions. Writing consultants will assist in a range of writing process strategies and techniques, providing responsive support in order for you to meet your writing goals.
- Writers may visit with a Flanner Community Writing Center writing consultant at any stage in the writing process. We encourage visits to the center before words are placed on the page, while you are drafting, and after you believe your writing is “done.” Writers do not need to have a draft in order to visit with a Flanner Community Writing Center writing consultant. In fact, visits to help strategize before writing the first sentence are sometimes the most helpful.
- After each session, writers will be provided with a brief report of the session that outlines the nature of discussion, suggested techniques, and possible “next steps.”
Our writing consultants are trained to work with a broad range of writing. Writers are encouraged to bring the following types of writing to the Flanner Community Writing Center:
- Workplace writing: Professional emails, memos, reports, resumes, and cover letters.
- School writing: Assigned writing for school and academic purposes in middle school, high school, and college. When working with school-based writing, please bring all applicable assignment guidelines.
- Personal writing: Memoirs, creative essays, letters, family documents, poetry, letters to the editor, etc.
- Digital and social inquiry writing: Websites, photo essays, and podcasts that ask questions, document, and explore issues that impact our communities and neighborhoods.
Our consultants are faculty, staff and undergraduate student peer tutors from the Marian University Writing Center. Peer tutors take specialized courses and training in order to remain successful in providing effective writing support.
Our writing consultants are trained to focus on supporting written literacies with those writing with at least a fourth-grade English writing equivalency. We are not yet situated to support adults gain basic literacy skills or support writers who identity as emerging English language learners.
Flanner Community Writing Center will provide Spanish-language writing support. However, more Spanish-language writing support is available through the Marian University Writing Center. To schedule an appointment with a Spanish-language tutor, visit our online schedule and select "Focus: Spanish" from the drop-down menu.
Yes, of course. The Marian University Writing Center is open to everyone.