About the On-Campus Writing Lab

To work with a Writing Tutor on-campus, you will need to come in to The Writing Lab on the second floor of Loso Hall in the Learning Resource Center. You will need to sign up for a tutor session at least 24 hours in advance. Sessions are generally 30 minutes long. You may schedule a one-time appointment, or schedule an appointment for the same time every week. We encourage students to develop a relationship with one tutor with whom they work weekly. It is over time, with consistent effort, that students become more effective thinkers and writers.

Research shows that good writers rarely work in isolation, but instead seek responses to works-in-progress. Writers learn better by writing, talking, and getting feedback on their writing, and then rewriting and rewriting. We are here to provide that feedback at each point in your writing process, from getting started, to finding a focus, to developing your ideas, improving organization, or helping you find and correct your own errors.

We cannot write, proofread, or correct papers for you. The Writing Lab is not a fix-it shop or an editing service. One session with a tutor is only a small part of what should be a writer's much longer process. You, not a tutor, own your own writing, and as the writer, you are responsible for improving your draft. We are trained to give you feedback to help you revise.

How to Schedule an On-Campus Writing Tutor Session:

In the Writing Lab on the second floor of Loso Hall, you will find a large white sign-up board on which writing tutors have written their schedules, providing several 30 minute slots for you to choose from to fit your own schedule (please do not phone to schedule conferences). On the board next to a time slot, write your full name. On the shelf below the board, fill out a Student Information Card and leave it in the Index Box. Write down your tutor session time and your tutor's name and email address. When you arrive for your conference, look for the tables with the Writing Tutor signs in the center.

Please call or email a tutor ahead of time if you cannot make an appointment.

Guidelines For Writers:
Using the Writing Lab Effectively

 Bring your text, assignment sheet, and course syllabus to your session. It is important for both writer and responder to be clear about the professor's expectations. Also, please bring to your session your writer's handbook (such as Diane Hacker's A Writer's Reference) .

 Contact your tutor when you cannot make it to your session. At the first meeting, exchange phone and email information (fill out a Student-Writer Information Card). The tutor is a student too, with a full schedule, and "no shows" are very disheartening. Also, the tutor cannot be paid if you do not come to your session. In turn, the tutor will try to contact you if he or she cannot make a session, and he or she will try to reschedule.

 Consider where you might be in your Writing Process. Here are some questions to help you determine this:

• Are you at the Invention/Brainstorming stage, trying to generate ideas?
  
• Have you produced a rough draft, and are at the Focusing stage, trying to find the center of gravity/thesis/focus of your paper?
  
• Do you have a clear sense of focus/purpose, and need help Developing your ideas?
  
• Do you have a full, rich draft, but need help Organizing your ideas?
  
• Are you at the Editing stage, and need help seeing error patterns so you can learn how to correct them yourself?
  
• Are you writing a research paper, and need help with Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Documenting your sources?
  

Keep in mind that the writing process does not go in a straight line, and writers move forward and backward, and in and among these stages as they write.

 Plan ahead and begin drafting early to allow time to get feedback and revise.

 Bring typed drafts, double-spaced, if possible. It is difficult to "see" a paper if it is handwritten. However, if you are having trouble getting started, do not hesitate to come to your session without a draft. The Writing Tutor can give you some strategies to help you get started.

 Think about comments and suggestions that have been made on this and other papers you have written. You can significantly cut down your writing and revising workload, and can use your session more efficiently by getting a handle on your instructor's comments.

 Be an active collaborator in your session. Sit next to your tutor with a pencil in your hand as you work on your draft. Mark sections of your draft that you are unsure of and would like to concentrate on. Write down your questions. They can be very helpful. If you can pinpoint specific sections or sentences in your draft, you will not have to wait for the writing tutor to find them.

 Underline your focus/thesis sentences, or if you cannot find your focus, try putting what you think is your main point into one or two sentences.

 Try outlining what you've written so far. Outlining mid-process is a good way of rethinking the overall organization of your paper.

 Remember that a typical session is 30 minutes long. Have reasonable expectations of what you and a Writing Tutor can accomplish in this time. This session is only a small part of a writing process that ideally includes many stages, many drafts, many hours.

 If you wait until the last hour, with your writing due shortly after your session, do not expect a Writing Tutor to proofread your work, or to work miracles in 30 minutes. The Writing Lab is not a "fix-it shop" or an editing service. Tutors can help you by pointing out your error patterns and showing you how to correct a few examples. Remember: Plan ahead and begin drafting early to allow time to revise and get feedback.