Our goal is to help you attain the skills you need to succeed at your writing challenges. We will not write or edit your papers for you, but we will provide you with strategies for developing topics, organizing ideas, incorporating research, and correcting grammatical errors. We want to help you to make choices so you can improve your own work. You can help us to help you by being prepared for your tutorial. Here are a few tips for making the most of your visit.

What to Bring to an Online Tutorial

  • Have a copy of your instructor’s assignment sheet available: if you have a print copy, you can read sections to your tutor over your headset; if you have an electronic copy, you may upload it into the whiteboard before your session begins. This will help us to address the goals, expectations, and criteria of your writing assignment.
  • Have your pre-writing notes and/or research materials available, and upload your draft to the whiteboard before your session begins. Even if you are just starting your assignment and do not have a draft yet, have your assignment sheet so we can help you to generate ideas. We can discuss the organization and development of your current draft, as well as talk about strategies for continuing your progress.
  • Bring along a list of goals for your tutorial. Please recognize that we may not be able to cover all of your questions or issues in one meeting. Rather, it helps us if you have one or two specific areas that you would like to address in your consultation. You are welcome to come back for additional appointments, so please give yourself enough time to revise.

What to Expect during an Online Tutorial

  • A writing center tutor will meet with you for 60 minutes. Your tutor will talk with you about your writing assignment, your notes or draft, and any questions you have about your assignment. You should use a headset with a microphone for best results; there is also a chat box function available so you and your tutor can type messages to each other during the tutorial.
  • We can help you with any writing assignment you encounter during your career at FMU, including research papers, lab reports, grad school applications, resumes, business letters, and creative writing. Be aware that the WCOnline whiteboard, which is where you will upload your paper and conduct your tutorial, will wipe all formatting from your paper: therefore, it may not be possible to check that your paper fulfills APA format in terms of layout; we can, however, make sure you are citing your sources properly using APA.
  • We can help you at any stage of the writing process, from inventing a topic to revising a draft.
  • Your tutor will be able to cover two or three specific areas during your tutorial. Prior to your appointment, think about the most important questions you have about your assignment. It often helps to think about larger rhetorical issues, such as your thesis, argument, organization, and paragraph structure, before moving on to mechanical issues, such as sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling. An online tutorial moves slower than a face-to-face tutorial; as a result, though you have 60 minutes, you still might not be able to cover everything in one tutorial.
  • Though we may not be able to cover everything in one tutorial, we encourage you to give yourself enough time to revise before your due date so you can sign up for a follow-up appointment, if necessary.
  • You should expect to learn something about writing. The writing center is a learning place, not a proofreading service. If we simply corrected your grammatical errors, you would not gain the skills you need to do well on future academic assignments or career projects. Rather, we want you to improve your writing abilities so you will be able to tackle any writing challenge with which you are faced.
  • We will not grade your work, nor will we predict a grade. Grading is a private issue between you and your instructor. Rather, we will review your instructor’s assignment sheet with you and help you to consider whether or not your draft addresses the goals and requirements of the assignment.

We look forward to meeting with you at the FMU Writing Center  online. Book your appointment for online tutorials here. You can also call 661-1528 for an appointment.