A: To make an appointment for the first time, just ask the front desk for help getting started or:

1. Register for a free account here–just enter your uic.edu email and choose a password and you’re set! It takes just 5 minutes.
2. Click make an appointment on our home page to login with your new account.
3. White spots show available sessions–click a white spot you want and fill out the appointment form.
4. You can choose to work with a tutor “synchronously” (live 50 minute conversation about your writing using chat or audio) or “asynchronously” (you will upload up to 3 pages double-spaced of a draft, along with your assignment prompt and 2-3 feedback priorities; the tutor will email you back comments within 48 hours).
5. If you want to work with a specific tutor, you can choose “I want this specific tutor” under Tutor Preference.
6. Click the “Create Appointment” button at bottom.
7. Look for an email confirming your chosen tutoring session. You’re done!

Tips:

• The schedule only shows one week at a time on the screen. But you can reserve up to 2 weeks in advance. Just click “next week” to see what’s available for the coming week.
• If you need to cancel your session, please do so at least an hour beforehand so other writers can claim your spot. Just login, click your session, and hit the Cancel Appointment button at bottom–or contact us by phone or email.

A: Wconline only shows one week at a time. To look ahead to next week’s schedule, click the “NEXT WEEK” link in the blue bar at top of wconline–or use the calendar icon there to navigate to a specific date.

A: Even if you don’t see any appointments free on wconline, we sometimes reserve a “drop-in” tutor for last minute needs and we do maintain a waitlist in case of no-show writers, so it’s worth checking with our desk person. Just email  wconlinehelp@gmail.com or call 312-300-6796 during our business hours. We’ll do our very best to find you the next tutor free, or if there is no one currently free at the time you need, we will share a link to our waitlist so you get the next available opening.

A: Not for synchronous appointments! You’re welcome to book a live synchronous session for help with a draft, partial draft, outline, or no writing at all. Our sync tutors are happy to work with you at any stage in the process. In fact, many writers find it helpful to come before they start writing, for help with understanding a confusing prompt or brainstorming an outline.

However, for an async appointment, YES–you will need to have a draft as a Word file or pdf, so the tutor can insert comments. In fact, to book an async appointment you will need to have three things ready to go: a) a draft (up to 3 pages double-spaced maximum is the most the tutor can read and respond to in a session; if you upload a longer draft without specifying three pages for attention, the tutor will make comments on the first 3 pages only, and you are welcome to book additional sessions for feedback on other sections); b) your assignment prompt (so the tutor know what the genre and audience expectations are for the writing, and can frame their comments appropriately); c) your 2-3 top priorities for feedback (this ensures that the tutor is focusing their 50 minutes of feedback time on the areas where you want the help of an outside reader).

After every session, within 48 hours, but usually sooner, tutors write up a “Writing Center Report” documenting the session with a letter to the writer summing up the work they did together and next steps.

The “Writing Center Report” gets emailed automatically by wconline to you, the writer, so that you can then forward it to any teachers who need proof of attendance.

So look out for a “Writing Center Report” from mywconline.com in your email–if you don’t see it by the end of the week you came for tutoring session, just contact us at wconlinehelp@gmail.com or call 312-300-6796 during our business hours, and we’ll make sure it to resend.

Yes! At the top of wonline is drop-down menu labeled “SORT SCHEDULE BY FOCUS.”  You can use this to filter our schedule so it shows only tutors with the specialty you want.

Our peer tutors are fellow UIC students from all majors, from English to Engineering to Biology to Criminology to Music. What they have in common is:

• a belief that ALL writers (themselves included!) benefit from conversation with an outside reader
• a commitment to meeting writers wherever they are at without judgment, and
• an enthusiasm for collaborating with fellow students who want to improve their writing.

All our tutors take a semester-long tutor training course called English 222, Tutoring in the Writing Center, as a prerequisite, and engage in ongoing professional development.

Any UIC student who has completed English 161 with a B or higher is eligible to take our semester-long tutor training course, English 222, which is part Writing Center pedagogy seminar/part apprenticeship where students tutor 2 hours a week on a volunteer basis for credit. Students who complete 222 are then eligible then to apply for a paid staff position. It’s a competitive hiring process, since we have more applicants than openings, but students who do well in the class and in tutoring feedback have a great shot.

Here is a sample course description:

English 222 is an intensive reading and writing course for students who would like to be writing tutors.  As such, students will not only engage critically with writing center theory, but also put theory to practice in developing respectful, collaborative, inclusive and effective tutoring strategies. Activities include: observation and cross-tutoring; participation in class discussions and presentations; reflections on tutoring sessions, aided by transcription and discourse analysis; weekly reading and writing assignments on, among other things, current tutoring research, diverse learning styles, and the roles of  language, identity, identity, race, gender, sexuality, power, and ideology in education; and a final, longer project based on a research question you design. In addition to meeting weekly for class, all students will be required to train and work (unpaid) in the Writing Center for 2 hours per week as writing tutors.Students receive a grade at the end of the semester that assesses their academic work for the course as well as their professional commitment to tutoring. Professionally, tutors are expected to be on time, respectful of students and faculty, supportive and attentive to all the writers who use the Writing Center, and receptive to coaching from their instructors and the Writing Center’s staff.