10 Villanelle for the Writing Centre: A Monologue
Lisa Kovac
What can I help you with this afternoon?
Try reading that out loud: how does it sound?
“Are,” not “is,” since there’s more than one raccoon.
You’ve organized this draft well. Now let’s prune
some modifiers: “kind of thing;” “around…”
What can I help you with this afternoon?
You have some good ideas, but they’re strewn
all over. What gives them their common ground?
“Are,” not “is;” there’s still more than one raccoon.
Your grammar’s fine; your thesis needs work: “June
is the best month.” Why? Summer? You’ll be gowned?
What can I help you with this afternoon?
That argument’s improved. If you fine-tune
the grammar, strings of words will be unwound:
“are,” not “is,” since there’s more than one raccoon.
Neat topics: “why our dollar has a loon,”
or “coin-retirement when new queens are crowned.”
What can you help me learn this afternoon?
Remember “are” for more than one raccoon.
The text of this chapter was written by Lisa Kovac and initially published in Connecting Writing Centers Across Borders, A Blog of WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship. It is licensed and reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.
About the author
name: Lisa Kovac
Lisa Kovac (she/her) lives in London, Ontario. Her work has appeared in Traces Journal, Corvid Queen, Wordsfest Zine, Enchanted Conversation, Connecting Writing Centers Across Borders, and in Imprints: Ten Write Place Writers, a creative writing journal published by King’s University College.
