What we will do:

Because our mission is to equip students with the skills they need to become better writers, your tutor will scaffold your appointment to address top priority issues first. The progression of an appointment will generally follow this order:

1. Content issues – Your tutor will be reading over your work for clarity of overall thoughts and ideas – for instance, if there is a conflict between your thesis and main ideas, that conflict will be addressed first. The strength of your writing depends most on this!
2. Structural issues – If your ideas are not flowing in a natural progression, your tutor may make suggestions about restructuring or rearranging certain sections or elements of your paper.
3. Local issues – This includes smaller issues like grammatical errors. The Writing Center does not operate as a simple editing service –this sort of help alone would not give students the tools they need to become better, more competent writers. Because this is our primary concern, your tutor will not address grammar until priorities number 1 and 2 have been resolved.

What you can do:

• Always provide the assignment sheet that your professor provides.
• Come prepared to learn from your tutor, not to get your work “fixed.”
• Think ahead! – in order to ensure that you have adequate time to address your tutor’s suggestions, please make your appointment at the very least one day, but preferably two + days prior to the due date.
• Be prepared to do follow-up work on your own to address your tutor’s suggestions before you turn in your paper.

The Marshall University Writing Center also partners with the Marshall University librarians.  If you are struggling to understand how to work with sources or are simply curious about the resources available through our libraries, make a special appointment with the tutor designated as "Research Librarian." (make “Research Librarians” a link to the Research Consultations webpage - http://marshall.libcal.com/appointments )