Writing Center Policies
On-line
Tutor: describe your writing situation
We may not respond to your submission if you have not provided us with enough information about your writing situation. The quality of our response depends on how well you describe your writing situation on the submission form. The more information you provide, the better able we are to offer you specific and appropriate advice for improving your writing.
Why we will not edit your paper
The Writing Center is an instructional service; our goal is to help you become a stronger and more skillful writer, not to make particular documents perfect. Our tutors will ask questions, teach strategies, and refer you to resources that will help you improve your own writing and editing. They will not go through your paper and point out or correct all of the errors. They will not write any part of your paper for you. This doesn't mean that our tutors can't help you with sentence-level errors (like problems with grammar and punctuation); typically, they'll look for patterns of error in your writing and try to teach you how to find and correct errors yourself.
How often you can use our services
Undergraduates may have two sessions per week (either online or face-to-face); graduate students, faculty, and staff may have one per week. Non-degree-seeking students must use our services as walk-ins, rather than by appointment. During busy times of the semester, we enforce additional limits: writers may have a maximum of two visits per semester to discuss application essays and personal statements, and writers may be limited to two sessions per academic paper.
Take-home exams
For take-home exams, some instructors specify whether you
may bring your work to the Writing Center. If this issue
is not explicity addressed in your exam prompt or in class, we normally depend on your
sense of whether the instructor has advocated the Writing Center or
would condone a visit for take-home exams. Since your instructor
will know from the conference summary that you have been here, it is
your responsibility to make this determination. If you have any
questions about whether it is appropriate to get feedback from the Writing
Center on take-home exams, ask your instructor before you bring in your
paper or submit it online.
On-line
Tutor: the ten-page limit
Because tutors only have fifty minutes to respond to your submission, we cannot respond to submissions over ten pages in length. Accordingly, complete theses, dissertations, and articles should not be submitted online, though you are welcome to submit a small segment of a larger document, provided you give the tutor sufficient context for understanding your writing and your concerns. We recommend you visit us on-site if you would like assistance with longer pieces of writing.
Undergraduates are our priority
UNC-CH undergraduates completing writing for a course
will receive top priority in the Online Tutor system. Although we
generally take appointments and submissions on a first-come, first-served
basis, we reserve the right to re-prioritize on-line submissions during periods of
peak use.
On-line
Tutor: Choosing a tutor
We cannot accept requests for a particular tutor in the online system. Tutors are assigned to respond to submissions according to a set work schedule. If you would like to meet with a particular tutor, please schedule a face-to-face appointment with him/her.
Conference summaries: what we tell your instructor
If you are a student working on an assignment for
a course, your tutor will send a conference summary to your instructor
following each appointment or online submission. This summary describes
what you and your tutor worked on during your session; it does not evaluate
you, your instructor, or your assignment in any way. Most instructors
are delighted to learn that you have visited the Writing Center and
are working on your writing skills. Your conference
summaries will be kept on file. You are welcome to review your summaries at any time.
Found
errors in your tutor's on-line response?
We apologize in advance for inadvertent errors in grammar, mechanics, and punctuation. We do our best to supply responses that model good prose; however, our responses are written quickly and should be read as first drafts, rather than as polished essays.
If you have questions about these policies or suggestions about our services, please
email us (writing_center@unc.edu).
