Sometimes your instructor may suggest that you visit the Writing Center. Or you may just be curious about what a writing tutor has to offer. Many colleges and universities have writing centers or subscribe to online services like WriteAway that provide tutoring in writing. What’s the benefit?

Writing tutors offer you another perspective on your writing. They serve as a real audience for your words and ideas. In addition to that, they have some additional expertise either because they are more experienced writers or they are writing instructors.

Preparing to Meet with a Tutor

It’s helpful if you bring the assignment or have access to it online. Your tutor will spend a few minutes at the beginning of the session figuring out what you are writing, what the requirements are, and when your work is due. They may ask what you have already done to improve the writing, and they will almost always ask you what you would like help with.

Keep in mind that your tutor will want to focus on a few important things rather than try to catch every little thing in your paper. Tutors won’t edit your paper for you, but they can help you learn how to edit your own work better.

At the end of a session, the tutor will probably ask you what you plan to do next with your writing. That’s how they check to see that you got what you needed from the session and that you understood the advice given. After you revise your writing, you may want to schedule another tutoring session to work on additional aspects of the assignment.

What about Getting Help from a Friend or Family Member?

Getting feedback from a reader outside of your class can sometimes be a good idea. If you want to ask a friend or family member for feedback, set some ground rules. They should follow the same rules as a peer reviewer. At the very least, asking a friend or family member to read your paper aloud will help you hear how your paper sounds. You will probably catch more errors, too.

Office Hours & Individual Meetings with Your Instructor and/or TA

Getting in-person help from your instructor or TA is one of the best ways to receive feedback. It can be intimidating to attend one-on-one meetings at first but remember, they are there to support your learning and growth.

Re-read your work before your meeting and prepare some questions. What do you think is working? What do you need help with? During the conference, take notes. If the instructor writes anything down, ask if you can take their notes with you. At the end of the meeting, work with your instructor on an action plan to revise your work.

Adaptations

This section has been adapted from Giving and Receiving in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.