Below are the polcies and procedures associated with the Writing Center.

> Appointment Policy
> Referral Policy
> Proofreading vs. Editing Skills Policy
> Other Policies

Appointment Policy

To get assistance from a writing tutor, appointments made in advance are required although walk-in visits are welcome if a tutor is available. Appointments can be scheduled on-line or in person. It is strongly recommended that appointments are scheduled several days before the writing project is due. 

Each student can sign up for ONE conference per day.

Once the appointment is made, a student is expected to maintain that schedule. If an emergency arises that prevents you from maintaining the schedule, please cancel or re-schedule it the day before your appointment so that other students can use the time slot. Missing two scheduled conferences in one semester will result in losing your privilege to use the free service.

All tutorial sessions will last 30 minutes, beginning at 12:00 p.m. till 6:00pm Monday through Thursday. The Writing Center closes at 4:30 p.m. on Fridays.

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Referral Policy

If a course instructor believes that a student would benefit from additional one-on-one writing tutorials at the Writing Center, referral forms are available.

The Career and Counseling Department provides assistance to students seeking employment upon graduation. In addition, it offers assistance with formatting and reviewing resumes, cover letters, and graduate school applications, and offers several sample documents for student use. Although the Writing Center is completely capable of working with students with writing of this kind, students may sometimes be referred to the Career and Counceling Services Department so as to benefit from the additional assistance offered there.

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Proofreading vs. Editing Skills Policy

The Writing Center does not copy-edit, proofread, or “correct” a student’s paper.  Tutors will, however, assist students in acquiring the necessary skills to proofread for their particular pattern of errors so that students can edit their own work.

Tutors can assist students with any stage of the writing process, from pre-writing to the final stages of revision. They can help students with grammar, but they will not make any changes on a paper; nor will they edit a paper for the student.

Tutors do not write papers on students’ behalf.

Tutors do not engage in excessive collaboration that will result in the loss of students' original voice and style.

Tutors do not suggest a grade, make corrections, or rewrite students' work.

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Other Policies

For an appointment to be most productive, students are expected, when they come for help with writing assignments, to bring copies of the instructor's original assignment, the current draft, and specific questions relating to any of the stages of the writing process that may be causing difficulty.

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