Writing Tutor Information
What Writing Assistants Do
- Aid in understanding and meeting writing assignments
- Help plan and get started on writing
- Talk about ideas and help develop them
- Assist in setting and meeting priorities for revision
- Teach students to control such surface features of writing as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling
Who May Benefit
- Students from any discipline
- Students from first-year to graduate
- Confident as well as struggling writers
What Students May Expect
- Help to improve as a writer
- Careful attention to written work
- Active listening and thoughtful responses to ideas
- Collaborative help with writing problems
- Knowledgeable assistance in finding resources needed to complete writing assignments
- Long-term writing instruction
What Students May Not Expect
- Someone to proofread and edit work for you
- Someone to do your writing work for you
- A substitute for writing instruction from your professor
- A perfect, error-free paper
- Guaranteed high grades on your writing
- A quick fix
How to Use the Writing Center
- Make an appointment—or several—as soon as you get a writing assignment
- Plan to meet with a Writing Tutor several times, if possible, over the course of your entire writing process
- Don’t wait until the last minute before your assignment is due. Although we may be able to offer limited assistance at that point, there is usually not time to make substantial improvements
How to Get the Most From Tutoring
- Participate actively in the tutoring session, not as a passive recipient
- Be willing to revise. Good writing usually requires thinking and re-thinking and multiple drafts to create a complete and successful text
- Understand writing as an open process that requires writers to use later invention and re-thinking to revise their work
- Be patient. Remember that Writing Assistants are students like yourself, learning to teach writing
What to Bring to a Tutoring Session
- Bring your ideas and your questions
- You need not have a paper written when you come to the Center
- Bring your assignment instructions, related reading, notes, research—any material to assist in developing your writing