What does a visit to the Writing Center look like? 

Each session is tailored to your needs. For example, depending on your goals and deadline, our tutor may help you plan your paper, help you review your argument, or show you ways to improve your writing's clarity.

Keep in mind these are "hands-on" sessions. Once you decide what to work on, your tutor will explain strategies for improving writing skills, such as how to refine your thesis statement.  You will get a chance to try out these strategies in your own writing with immediate feedback.  

By the end of the session, your paper will be on the path to improvement; plus you will leave with one or more helpful strategies.

How can I get the most out of my visit?

Come prepared

• Bring your assignment description. The more we know about the assignment guidelines, the better we can customize our advice.
• Bring what you have been working on recently: your notes, outlines or draft.
• Come with questions you would like to discuss about your writing.  For example, we can help you answer questions like: "how can I make my research question more focused?";  "How well does my argument follow my thesis?"; or "How can I find my own grammatical errors?" 

Save time for revision

• Come as early as possible in your writing process. We are willing to help you the night before your paper is due, but our advice will be more useful if you have plenty of time to apply it.
• Visit us more than once for the same paper. If one session can help you improve your essay, imagine how strong your paper will be after a second or third visit! 

Will you tell my teacher about my session? 

Yes, but only if you ask us to do so. Our tutors always write up a quick summary our our sessions (so they can remember you if you come back).  

If you want your teacher to see a summary of the session, let us know. On the "schedule an appointment" form, make sure you give us your teacher's name and email address.  

If you don't give us your teacher's name and email, we will not send any information to your teacher.