Margaret Ervin
Lawrence 214
West Chester, PA 19383
610-430-5664 mervin@wcupa.edu
(Page 2)
What should I bring with me when I come?
Do I need a draft?
You should bring in the assignment and whatever you have done
so far. It is okay if you have not started writing yet. If you
just have the assignment sheet and some ideas, bring those ideas
in and we will help you brainstorm topics. We can help you wherever
you are in the writing process.
Will you proofread my paper for me?
The Writing Center's ultimate goal is for you to become a better
writer. If we merely marked your mistakes, you wouldn't learn
much from the session. The paper is yours, and should be written
by you, not by a tutor. This is also why you can not drop off
your paper and have us proofread it for you. However, what we
will do is talk about your writing with you, make some suggestions,
and explain why we made those suggestions. Whether you want
to change the things we suggest or not is your decision.
Why don't you write on my paper?
We'd prefer that YOU write on your paper during a tutorial at
the Writing Center. Afterall, it's your paper. If we scribbled all over it, then it would
be partly ours. Tutors do help students take notes and may
write on papers with the student's permission, but it's not
our goal to correct your paper. It's our goal to help you
learn to correct it yourself..
Can you tell me what grade you think
my paper will get?
We are not involved in your professor's grading process and
therefore have no idea of what your grade will be. Additionally,
every professor has different grading policies. If you have
concerns, it is always a good idea to talk with your professor.
The Writing Center can certainly help you with your writing,
but it is not designed to be a substitute for your professor.
Will my professor know that I came?
If you want your teacher to know that you were at the Writing Center,
we have a form called a Tutor Response Form that we can send
to your instructor. It says only that you came to the Writing
Center, and briefly outlines what we worked on in our session.
Nothing on the Tutor Response form will evaluate your writing.
If you don't want your instructor to know that you came to the
Writing Center for help, then we will not send the form.
What do you write about me on the tutor
response form?
We fill out a Tutor Response form for every visit to the
Writing Center. It's how we keep statistics about how many
tutorials we run, and which students we serve, and what
writing issues are most common among our students. The Tutor
Response Forms are completely non-evaluative. This
means that we do not write anything about the quality of your
writing. We will only write what we discussed during the session.
If you want, we will copy the Tutor Response Form and send it
to your instructor as a record of your visit to the Writing
Center
Why should I have a tutor response
form sent?
The Tutor Response Form is a great way to let your professor
know that you care about your writing and are putting effort into the assignment.
You are showing the professor that you are willing to put extra
time into the assignment, and professors always like to see
that!
