Writing Center Frequently Asked Questions

When you arrive, one of our front desk assistants will greet you. Give your name and appointment time or, if you are a walk-in, explain that you would like to see a tutor. 

Once you've checked in at the front desk, your tutor will come to the waiting area to meet you. He or she will take you to a tutoring station. Your tutor will then ask you what you are working on and how he or she can help you.

The two of you will look over your assignment sheet or writing project together. Typically, the tutor will ask you questions about your audience, purpose, content, and organization, then help you find ways to improve the project at hand, and your writing in general. At the end of the session, your tutor will submit a comprehensive tutoring report slip that you can choose to have sent to your professor.

No! The Writing Center is not an editing or proofreading service. Our goal is to make you a better writer. We do so by working with you on the paper you have. If your tutor simply located and corrected "errors," you wouldn't gain much from the experience. When you work with a writing tutor during a session, he or she can help you understand how to make your paper and your future writing better, how to better understand what your teachers expect from you, and how to improve weaker areas of your writing. Editing and proofreading can't do all of that.

You are welcome to walk-in during center hours to see if there is a tutor available to schedule an appointment with. During our peak periods (just before midterms and finals), we highly recommend that you make an appointment several days in advance.

We usually advise students to schedule appointments at least 2-3 days ahead.

You may schedule 1 appointment per day, and up to 2 appointments per week.

If you find that you work well with a particular consultant, you may certainly request subsequent appointments with that tutor. Be aware, however, that it is sometimes helpful to get suggestions for improvement from more than one person.

If you find you cannot make your scheduled appointment, please cancel by calling the Writing Center at (301) 405-3785 as soon as possible. If it is over an hour beforehand, you can also cancel your appointment by logging into your Writing Center account and clicking on your scheduled slot. Please note that 3 missed appointments without prior cancellation will result in your account being disabled. If your account is disabled, you will not be able to schedule an appointment and must come to walk-in hours to be tutored.

Most of our consultants are students who also have final exams and papers to complete.

The Writing Center is open in the Fall and Spring Semesters Monday–Thursdays 9: 00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. and Fridays 9:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. We do have evening hours at McKeldin Library that may change depending on the semester. The homepage will have the latest updates on Writing Center hours. 

At the end of your session, your tutor will fill out a tutoring report form detailing what you discussed during your session. You are given the option of sending your report slip to your professor. Even if you choose not to send a report form to your professor, we still keep a record of your visit in our files.

No. The purpose of the tutoring report slip is just that—to provide a report of a tutoring session. A session has to occur in order for there to be something to report.

The Writing Partners Program matches ENGL101 students with the same Writing Center tutor for 5-10 consecutive sessions during the semester. Current ENGL101 students at the University of Maryland, College Park are eligible to participate on a first-come, first-served basis.

Apply to the program.