Appointments may be scheduled up to 2-3 weeks in advance of the date you are requesting. Because of limited staffing, students are advised to make an appointment several days in advance of when they would like to meet. We can accommodate in-person walk-ins depending on availability.
Hours: Sunday to Thursday, 2 pm to 10 pm. Appointments always begin on the hour and last 45 minutes. Each student is allowed up to two appointments per week in busy times.
Appointment Policies
If you need to reschedule or cancel an appointment
- Please let us know so that we can see others. The earlier we know, the more likely we can fit in someone else. If you have to cancel, please do at least 2 hours before your scheduled appointment. If you must cancel an appointment 30 (or fewer) minutes prior to your appointment, you will need to call the Writing Center directly at 410-516-4258. (If you are canceling less than 30 minutes before your appointment, you must call.) See below for our policy on missed or “no-show” appointments.
- To delete your appointment:
- Log in to WC Online and select your appointment. A new window will open.
- Check the “Delete this reservation?” box at the bottom of the page.
- Select “Save changes.”
- We hope to see you back again soon! Those who miss an appointment and do not show up are marked “no-shows.”
- If you accidentally miss one appointment, we’ll send you a reminder of our policies. Those with two no-shows in one semester will forfeit appointment privileges for the remainder of the semester. However, you can walk into the Writing Center to see if we have an available tutor.
Arriving late to your appointment
Those who arrive ten or more minutes late for an appointment may be marked as a no-show if another writer is waiting to see your tutor. If you know you will be late, you will need to call the Writing Center directly at 410-516-4258.
Writers are limited to a maximum of two appointments per week
There are two main reasons for this limit. First, we’d like you to have time to develop the writing strategies that you discussed with your tutor, so it’s good to have a little cushion between appointments. Second, we wish there were more of us, but unfortunately, we can only staff a few tutors per hour.
The appointment limit is therefore two pre-scheduled tutorial sessions per week. That said, you can try your luck and drop into the Writing Center during our open hours; if a tutor is available, then we’d be happy to see you.
No back-to-back appointments. You will see that WC Online restricts scheduling two appointments in a row. Two hours of tutoring the same writer can be quite draining for tutors, and writers need time in between appointments to work on their own and develop the writing strategies discussed with the tutor.
Prepare for Your Appointment
Before Your Appointment
If you have an in-person appointment, please bring a printed copy of your draft with you to Gilman 230.
To prepare for an online appointment, click on your appointment in WCOnline and then click on the link to start your online appointment. You can then discuss with your tutor how you will share your document. WCOnline provides a whiteboard space for this purpose or you may choose to share your text via a google doc.
You can visit the “How Appointments Work” tab for more detailed instructions about Zoom and phone appointments.
What Else You Should Bring
In addition to your draft, please bring the assignment sheet or prompt for your assignment and any guidelines that you think your tutor ought to be aware of. You are also welcome to bring notes, pre-draft exercises, prior drafts, or comments from your instructor if you think they will help your tutor to better understand the assignment, your approach, your writing style and needs, and so on.
Trite as it may sound, an open mind is the most important thing you can bring to your appointment. Plan to take notes!