Guidelines for Visiting the Writing Center

When to Come to the Center:

Tutorial sessions are most productive when the writer comes to the Center at least a few days before an assignment is due. If you come in an hour before a paper is due, or even the night before, you limit the kind of assistance a tutor can offer and jeopardize the quality of your work. Tutors will always do their best to help you, but they cannot work miracles.

What to Bring:

Come prepared. Know the details of the assignment, the title of the course and the name of your professor. Bring the necessary texts, notes, drafts, assignment handouts and specific questions for the tutor.

What to Expect and Not Expect:

Do not expect more than fifty minutes with a tutor per visit. Before meeting with a tutor for a second visit on a writing project, you must demonstrate independent progress beyond the initial visit.

Expect tutors to make suggestions and to offer advice about how you might improve your writing, but do not expect them to estimate the grade your writing will receive. Make your own decisions about what changes you will make to your writing project.

Do not expect tutors to proofread your papers for errors; that is your job. Tutors will help you to learn how to edit your own work.

After the Session:

Apply the strategies you have learned to improve your next assignment!