What happens in a Writing Center appointment? 

A Writing Center appointment can address a variety of a writer’s concerns and questions. These questions/concerns can include how to get started, interpreting assignment instructions, discussing the writer’s ideas, encouraging the writer past self-doubt and anxieties, reading a draft aloud for readability and style, checking with the writer to see if they have met goals and criteria for the task, addressing questions about language, and working with the writer on citing and referencing. 

Why should students use our services? 

Writing Centers are an essential support service on every campus where students have something to write and questions about how best to write it. All writers benefit from feedback on their writing. The common notion of writers working and publishing in isolation is the exception, not the norm. The reality is that successful writers––published or not––seek and receive feedback on the ideas, language, mechanics, and formatting in their work.

Who should use our services?

A student with a question about their writing (typically assigned but not always) works with a trained writing tutor. Peer tutors are students like the writers whom they tutor; professional staff tutors are advanced degree holders with years of experience and, often, careers dedicated to Writing Center work. Additionally, at UW Tacoma, we feel strongly about welcoming students of all backgrounds, and we work to provide a supportive space and staff who understand and reflect the diversity of the student body.

When can I use the Writing Center? 

Writing Centers have varied hours, but typically operate morning, day, and evening to meet student need. The UW Tacoma Writing Center hours can be found via our Slate scheduling system. Staff are not available for tutoring during holidays.

Where is the Writing Center located?

In person writing appointments typically take place at a table with a writer and tutor sitting side-by-side or across the table from each other. At UW Tacoma, these in person appointments occur on the 2nd Floor of the Tioga Library Building. Alternatively, appointments can occur via Zoom or asynchronously. Our Zoom appointments simulate a face-to-face appointment on Zoom. “Written feedback” appointments are asynchronous, with the tutor reading and commenting on a digital document provided by the student writer when they sign-up for an appointment. The tutor emails the student their feedback at the end of the appointment time that a student has requested. 

How does the UW Tacoma Writing Center work? 

Students first decide to seek help or feedback, then make an appointment on our web-based Slate schedule or drop in to our 2nd floor Tioga Library Building space. Once the appointment begins, tutors work to understand the unique concerns, questions, needs, the goals of each writer, and the parameters of each rhetorical situation (e.g. writing assignment, presentation, application essay, etc.). During in person appointments, the tutor and the writer agree on an agenda or direction and proceed from there. A tutor will typically make recommendations about which concerns to prioritize, and might need to re-evaluate these priorities in light of new questions or dwindling time.