Prepare for Your Appointment

What to Expect

Most sessions take place for 30 minutes, but you may make an appointment for 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes. If you are not sure about session length, give us a call or stop by!

In each session, we offer conversation, questions, feedback, and strategies to help you improve your writing. We recommend that you visit us more than once as you work through drafts of your writing.

Sessions may vary depending upon your needs but will often consist of the following: During the session, you will introduce yourself and your writing project, develop a goal for the session, and take one or two steps toward improving your work as a writer. Near the end of the session, you'll summarize your work and plan for next steps.

You will receive a session report over email. If you would like an instructor to receive evidence of a visit, you will need to request that we send the report to the instructor. We don't send session reports to instructors without your permission.

Prepare for Your Appointment

• Please fill out the appointment form on WCONLINE accurately, including your Blue Chip Card number. If you are visiting our physical location, please bring your Blue Chip card to your appointment for verification.

• You do not need to have anything written to meet with us, but bring any writing you have produced so far. Most face-to-face sessions work best with printed copies of your writing, but we understand that printing is expensive, so it's OK to bring a laptop or tablet to review your work.
• If your appointment is online, our software allows you to upload your writing to a digital whiteboard.
• We will not print out papers in the Writing Center.
• If there is an assignment sheet, please bring it to your session.
• If the writing is not for a course, you are still welcome to meet with us!
• Be ready to work actively during the session.
• Come in with 1-2 specific goals in mind. If you're not sure what you want to work on, we can help you figure that out.
• While we are happy to help with grammar and sentence structure, we do not edit or proofread papers. However, we can help you learn more about how to spot and correct errors.

Writing Center Expectations

• You may book one appointment per day. Walk-ins are always welcome.
• For a long project, we recommend that you book a series of appointments. You will be able to schedule appointments on WCONLINE through finals week.
• Please come to your appointment 5 minutes before your scheduled time. If you are online, an administrative assistant will pop into the appointment to make sure you are there and double-check your appointment details. 
• We will work with one piece of writing per appointment.
• For Instructors: We will not work with students on take-home exams without permission from the instructor. The instructor should email the Writing Center Director at afields@ccsu.edu to give this permission.
• For Instructors: If a student chooses to send evidence of a visit, you will receive the session report over email. If you require visits, it is up to the student to send you the session report, which is automatically sent to the student. If students lose their session reports, we're happy to re-send them to the student over email. The student can always contact us to request that the report be sent to a particular instructor or advisor.
• For Instructors: If you require visits, please be aware that there are certain times of the semester when students may not find openings in the schedule. We find that students who are encouraged rather than required to visit the Writing Center tend to get the most from our services.