Writing Center Services

The University Writing Center offers free one-to-one tutoring, providing all UD students with the opportunity to work on and improve their writing.  Tutorials are conversation based. You can expect to read through your writing with an experienced writing tutor, talk about what is working well, and what could improve. 

We offer assistance with all types of writing (academic or non-academic) and work with students at any stage of the writing process.

The Writing Center has two campus locations. 016 Memorial Hall is the primary location of the University Writing Center and serves as the location of the Oral Communication Consultants. The Writing Center @ Morris Library is located in 017 Morris Library. 

Appointments with our writing tutors are 1 hour in length. You may have 1 appointment per day. 

Please make an appointment using our online scheduler. If you have additional questions, you may call 302-831-1168. You can also stop by the writing center to see if a consultant is available.

Schedule an appointment.​

If you are unable to visit the writing center in person, but would like to have a virtual consultation, in real time, with a writing tutor, you should choose to make an "online appointment". 

How to make an online appointment:

1. Log in to wconline and choose the writing tutoring schedule (or the oral communication consultants schedule if you want an appointment to review a speech or presentation). Under the tutors' names, choose one who has "online" listed as a tutoring option. Find an open timeslot with that tutor, and click it.

2. When the appointment box opens, you will see a "Meet online?" option below the client information box. Choose "Yes--schedule online appointment". Complete the rest of the appointment form.

3. At your appointment start time (or a few minutes before) log in to Wconline and click on your appointment. You will see a prompt in red letters to start or join an online conversation. Click it. You will be taken to your appointment space. 

If the device you are using has a camera, you will be prompted to allow wconline to access it. You may choose to do so in order to use video and audio to talk with your tutor, or you may decline, and just use the chat feature at the right of the screen and the "whiteboard" area in the middle of the screen to communicate with your tutor. Your tutor will tell you how they want you to share your draft with them--importing the whole document or copying and pasting it onto the whiteboard. 

The chat and whiteboard will save to your appointment, so you can go back to your appointment later to see what you and your tutor accomplished! You can also click on the clock icon at the top right of the whiteboard to see additions and changes you and your tutor made to text during your session replayed on your screen in the order they happened.

Schedule an appointment

​If you are unable to visit the writing center during a time we have an appointment available, you could try e-tutoring instead. 

Your will make an appointment for Etutoring and attach your draft. During the eutoring appointment, your tutor will read your draft, then write you a note that summarizes what they saw as the strengths of your draft, and offers your a few suggestions for revision. The tutor will then upload this note to your appointment as a separate document. You will receive an email when this has been completed; expect that to be toward the end of the hour your etutoring appointment is set for. 

How to make an eTutoring appointment:

1.) Login to wconline. On our online scheduler for writing tutors, look at the tutor names to find one that has "eTutoring" indicated. 

Find an open appointment slot for that tutor (note: you do not have to be available to meet the tutor during that appointment time; the appointment time is when the tutor will read and respond to the draft you send us). Click on the appointment. 

2.) ​When the appointment box opens, you will see a "Meet online?" option below the client information box. Choose "Yes--schedule e-tutoring" for an e-tutoring appointment.

3.) When you save your appointment, a window will open that asks if you want to attach a document to your appointment. You may attach more than one document, so if you have an assignment sheet or any other kind of written instructions, please upload that along with your draft. If your draft is ready when you make the appointment, go ahead and upload a Word doc, pdf, or Powerpoint document when the box prompts you to. 

​If you don't want to attach a draft yet, don't worry! You may upload a document later, as long as it is before the start time of your e-tutoring session. Just log back into WCOnline. At the top left side of the screen, you will see "Welcome, Your Name." Hoever on the arrow next to your name to see a drop down list that includes "My Appointments." Click on the appointment you want to attach a file to. Scroll down and click "edit appointment". The next screen will give you the option to attach a file.

​4.) When your tutor has finished writing a response to your draft, you will receive an email with that response attached as a Word document.

If you are having trouble with the process of making an eTutoring appointment or with retrieving our response to you, give us a call at 302-831-1168 email us or stop by either our Memorial Hall or Morris Library locations. 

Schedule an appointment

The writing center offers workshops for UD students on writing-related topics. Both undergraduate and graduate students are welcome. Workshops are held in the Morris 017 writing center location.

More information about Spring 2020 workshops is here: Writing Center Spring 2019 Workshops