Writing Consultations

The Student Writing Center is located on the 11^th floor of the Edison building at the corner of 9^th and Sansom. On the 11^th floor, follow the hallway around to the right and look for offices 1122 and 1123.

It is not — however, there is a writing center in Scott Library on the 3^rd floor, run by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). While our staff at the Student Writing Center focuses on helping students with writing for coursework, the CTL Writing Center serves both faculty and students and provides guidance for writers interested in publication. For more information, click here.

Our writing consultants are a diverse and highly-trained team of both full and part-time professional writing staff and part-time peer tutors. All of our writing consultants have strong backgrounds in writing and experience with tutoring in a higher education setting. 

Yes — the Student Writing Center does not currently accept walk-ins and operates on an appointment-only basis. To make an appointment, click here and follow the page instructions. 

Appointments are set at 30 minutes or 60 minutes. Generally speaking, the length of your assignment will serve as a good rule of thumb regarding how much time you may need to spend with a consultant. Our office uses the following guidelines:

• 1-3 pages: 30 minutes
• 4-10 pages: 60 minutes

Due to high demand for our services, students may only book a maximum of TWO appointment slots per week, whether consecutive or non-consecutive. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the availability of appointments on a given day or at a given time. Please plan to make an appointment for a time when you are ready to benefit most from the session.

(Please note that assignments longer than 10 pages may not be able to be reviewed in full during a standard consultation.)

Yes! Please call our office at (215) 503-2787 to describe your project and your needs. We will discuss the number of appointments needed and appropriate intervals between appointments. We will also assign an appropriate consultant to work with you through all relevant appointments.

Please plan to focus on a specific part of the paper in each one-hour appointment. 

• You will receive a confirmation email for your appointment from AppointmentPlus. Please review the appointment time, location, and writing consultant.
• Carefully review your draft and identify specific questions or areas of focus for the conference.
• Email your consultant before the session with any relevant assignment information or guidelines.
• Prepare two copies of the draft to bring to the conference. 

Unfortunately, our schedule does not allow for advance reading. However, our practices are designed to use the time of the appointment for active and efficient review. 

• At the beginning of the session, you and your writing consultant will use a conference checklist to determine what you'd like to work on. Together you'll create an agenda for your time together that will help keep the session focused on your specific concerns.
• While the consultant reads your draft, they will encourage you to actively read the draft again as well and will often suggest you work on a reverse outline: an exercise designed to help you clearly see the organization and development of your paper.
• Please note that we are informed readers and will provide feedback on, among other things, overall structure and organization, clarity, development, and support, but we are not trained in your field and are unable to answer specific content questions. Please refer these to your professor or check appropriate source materials.
• We can provide advice on grammar, syntax, or mechanics; however, we will not correct your paper but will instead provide you with the information and tools to do so yourself.
• While we will provide feedback and answer questions about the use of a designated reference and citation style (APA or AMA, for example), we do not guarantee that we will identify all errors. It is ultimately your responsibility to ensure that your formatting, citations, and references are correct.
• While we will often refer to paper guidelines when offering questions, suggestions or other feedback, we are unable to grade your paper or to assess the draft using the rubric.
• Please understand that you will not leave your conference with a finished draft, but rather with clear direction on areas for improvement.

• While we strongly encourage students to attend in-person consultations if at all possible, we are happy to offer both synchronous and asynchronous writing consultations for distance students and students who are unable to visit our offices in-person.
• Asynchronous reviews take the form of e-mailed comments on a provided draft. During the allotted time, a writing consultant will review your paper and offer both global and local comments about areas for improvement.
• Synchronous reviews may be conducted either via phone, Skype, Zoom or Blackboard Ultra. The latter two programs provide a video-conferencing platform that allows the student and writing consultant to share screens and work collaboratively on an assignment.
• Please notify us of your preferred type of remote consultation when booking your appointment.
• Please note that all remote consultations, whether asynchronous or synchronous, must be scheduled for an hour to allow our writing consultants sufficient time for review. 

Unfortunately, due to high demand for our services, the SWC does not allow same-day appointments. We strongly encourage students to be proactive and schedule time for consultations well in advance of assignment due dates. Our online booking system allows students to book appointments up to 60 days in advance.

As a professional courtesy, we do ask that all students notify the Student Writing Center if they are unable to make a stated appointment time (barring emergency circumstances). This can be done by phone at 215-503-2787, by email at James.Dyksen@jefferson.edu, or simply by canceling your appointment in AppointmentPlus.

Please note that due to high demand, we cannot guarantee that a rescheduled appointment time will be available in the event of a cancellation.

Resumes, CVs, and cover letters are all handled by the Career Development Center, also located on the 11^th floor of the Edison building. Please click here to learn more and schedule an appointment.

Please contact Jim Dyksen, Associate Director of Academic Support Services, at James.Dyksen@jefferson.edu to discuss job opportunities within our office.