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Welcome to Writing Services at Huron!

Our teaching-based centre supports student writing and communication development, as well as targeted academic course support, at Huron University College. Working in a one-to-one, low-stakes environment, our Peer Tutors, ELL Specialists, and Graduate Fellows guide students as they move through the processes of brainstorming, outlining, drafting, and polishing their communication pieces. Meanwhile, our Math Specialist and Business Tutors work with students in math, business, accounting, and economics courses.  Through discussion, short lessons, and the provision of resources, students will retain control over their own writing and coursework.

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This year, the Writing Services team is launching a suite of digital academic support to help you navigate your courses, applications, and other writing, communication, and course content needs:

Tutoring: our team of trained tutors are available to work with you on your writing and communication projects, as well as select courses in Business, Economics, Accounting, and Math
course content tutoring. Choose from synchronous and asynchronous options.
Writing Café: join other members of the Huron community in a low-pressure, social space to get your reading and writing done. No registration required; synchronous over Zoom.
Study Halls: each week, students can attend drop in sessions to study and/or ask questions of the available tutor. One hour each week for Math, Business, and Learning Strategies. No registration required; synchronous over Zoom

If you have any questions about our programming or need help with our booking system, please reach out to our Coordinator, Mandy Penney, at ageorg8@uwo.ca. We look forward to working with you this year!

The Writing Services Team

Intro to Writing Services this Fall

Book a Writing Services Appointment

Please read before booking

Students: You can book up to two hours per week of tutor appointments.

Book Appointment

If you require a drop-in session, you can try joining the Zoom link for the kind of tutoring you need (writing/communication or course content).

Zoom Tutoring Drop-in:

If a tutor is available, they will move you from the waiting room to a session
Please note: drop-ins are not guaranteed and depend on tutor availability.

Writing and Communication Tutoring

Course Content Tutoring

 

Study Halls

In addition to booking one-to-one tutoring sessions, students can also choose to join one of our weekly Study Hall sessions. You can use this time to ask questions of the tutor in the Study Hall, as well as other students, or use the time to get your work done knowing that a tutor is available if you encounter any issues. No registration required – just drop in!

Math (all courses) with Dr. John Drozd
Mondays, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm EST

Business 1220 with Barry Kelterborn
Mondays, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm EST

Learning Strategies with Caitie MacDonald
Thursdays, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm EST

Study Hall Drop-in

What We Do

Writing Services is a teaching service, not a proofreading one. Our goal is to equip learners with the information, strategies, and resources to become stronger and more confident communicators – to achieve this, we step into the role of educated outside readers to give student, faculty, and staff a sense of how their work might be received by their intended audience.

What we will do:

  • Allow students to retain control and final decision-making authority over their own work
  • Ask probing questions to help students think critically about their writing and how their audience might react to it
  • Provide short lessons and/or resources to help students polish their writing on their own and learn more about the qualities of strong writing
  • Use mind-mapping and outlining techniques to assist students with brainstorming
  • Offer reader reactions in real time to a piece of communication
  • Discuss conventions of different communication genres (essays, reflections, case studies, blogs, etc.)

What we will not do:

  • Guess a grade: the design and assessment of a class assignment is the purview of the faculty member(s) who developed it. While we can discuss general expectations around post-secondary writing, the student should discuss specific concerns or questions about grading to the instructor or TA of a given course. Our role is to sit in as an educated outside reader to give you a sense of how your intended audience might perceive your ideas and style
  • Proofread/copy-edit: the goal of a session is not to find and fix every error while the student sits passively. Instead, we work strategically and collaboratively to highlight areas of strength and potential concerns and provide strategies and solutions for improving written communication over time
  • Work from a computer screen: writing centre sessions are most useful and productive when working from a hard copy. Unless a student requires their laptop for accessibility purposes, or because they are working on a multimedia/digital project, we need a hard copy in order to help most efficiently

 

For course content support, our tutors will work with students (individually or in groups) to help them understand key concepts related to their coursework. Strategies may include reviewing class materials (notes, textbook), completing practice exercises, or quizzing to help students prepare for upcoming assessments. Please note that content tutors will not complete homework for students.

Important Links

Book an Appointment

Choose from general and course specific tutors

Avoiding Plagiarism

Western Libraries on how to avoid plagiarism

Copyright Decision Map

Learn more about copyright and reproducing works for academic use

Purdue OWL | Online Writing Lab

A great source for all questions writing-related

Writing Services Programming

Writing Services is committed to serving Huron’s students, faculty, and staff in all of their writing and multimodal communication goals and to positioning Huron as a hub of communication excellence. Our suite of programming for the 2018 – 2019 academic year is designed to meet the varied needs of our community and to reinforce the importance of collaboration and ongoing learning in the development of individual authorial voices.

Writing and Communication Tutoring for Students
English Language Tutoring
Course Content Tutoring for Students
Services for Faculty

Appointments and Drop-In Consultations

45-minute appointments with one of our tutors can be made by booking online here. Once you have booked your appointment, you will receive a confirmation email that includes the Zoom link for your session. If you would like to try to access a drop-in appointment, please head to the Writing and Communication Tutoring Zoom link. If a tutor is available to work with you, they will admit you into the session from the waiting room.

Pre-booked appointments allow for a guaranteed time slot. Students may access up to two booked appointments a week, if availability exists. Drop-in appointments are ideal for quick questions or if you would like quick feedback on a short piece of writing. Please note that drop-ins are not guaranteed and depend on tutor availability.

Please note that it is nearly impossible to identify all areas for improvement in a single session; working with your tutor, you will identify the key issues for discussion and receive feedback and strategies for refining your work. If you would like in-depth support for a single assignment, It’s best to plan ahead and book a number of sessions.

Book Now

Writing Café

Join other members of the Huron students, faculty, and staff community on Mondays (9:30-11:30 am EST) and Wednesdays (1:30-3:30 pm EST) in a virtual Writing Café to get your writing and reading done in a casual, low-stakes, and supportive atmosphere. This program offers the benefits of guided writing/reading time and the opportunity to engage in conversations around productivity, wellness, collaborative writing, and peer review. Bring your favourite coffee or tea, and take advantage of a dedicated time for moving forward with your projects. No registration or commitment required – just pop into our Zoom link when you can:

Writing Cafe

Our Specialists

For students whose first or primary language is not English, we have two TESOL-certified ELL Specialists, Bei and Craig, who are available to work with students requiring short-term, intensive help with writing and communication tasks. They work closely with our other writing and communication tutors to ensure that students receive support in all aspects of writing, including content, structure, style, and mechanics.

Writing Café

Join other members of the Huron students, faculty, and staff community on Mondays (9:30-11:30 am EST) and Wednesdays (1:30-3:30 pm EST) in a virtual Writing Café to get your writing and reading done in a casual, low-stakes, and supportive atmosphere. This program offers the benefits of guided writing/reading time and the opportunity to engage in conversations around productivity, wellness, collaborative writing, and peer review. Bring your favourite coffee or tea, and take advantage of a dedicated time for moving forward with your projects. No registration or commitment required – just pop into our Zoom link when you can:

Writing Cafe

Our content tutors will work with students, whether individually or in small groups, to help them refine their understanding of key course concepts in the following courses / subject areas:

Math (any course – John and Ali)
Economics (1220, 2257 – Nathan; 1220, 2257, 2220, 2221, 2260, 2261 – Barry)
Business (1220, 2257) – Nathan and Barry

Our tutors have demonstrated themselves to have strong course content knowledge in their areas.

Our tutors have demonstrated themselves to have strong course content knowledge in their areas. Our Math Specialists include a doctoral candidate (Ali Al-Khairy) and Dr. John Drozd, who holds a doctorate in mathematics and theoretical physics and also works as a faculty member at Fanshawe College. Our peer tutors for Business, Economics, Accounting, Taxation, and Finance are upper-year Huron students with a strong record of academic achievement.

Schedule an Appointment

Writing Café

Join other members of the Huron students, faculty, and staff community on Mondays (9:30-11:30 am EST) and Wednesdays (1:30-3:30 pm EST) in a virtual Writing Café to get your writing and reading done in a casual, low-stakes, and supportive atmosphere. This program offers the benefits of guided writing/reading time and the opportunity to engage in conversations around productivity, wellness, collaborative writing, and peer review. Bring your favourite coffee or tea, and take advantage of a dedicated time for moving forward with your projects. No registration or commitment required – just pop into our Zoom link when you can:

Writing Cafe

One-on-One Appointments

The Coordinator of Writing Services, Mandy, is available for one-on-one 50-minute consultations to discuss and offer feedback on any aspect of your research/writing project, including project management, productive writing strategies, brainstorming, drafting, and revising.

Appointments for faculty are limited, so book early – email Mandy at ageorg8@huron.uwo.ca to discuss scheduling.

In-Class Support

Writing Services offers customized, integrated course support in order to help your students meet communication outcomes. Mandy has extensive experience in classroom instruction from her time as faculty and academic support staff at other institutions.

Previous workshops she has designed include writing literature reviews, public scholarship and knowledge translation, writing English essays, designing and delivering effective presentations, and writing in non-academic genres.

If you would like to discuss opportunities for collaboration and in-class writing and communication interventions, email Mandy Penny to discuss further.

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Helpful Information and Resources

How to Prepare for Your Appointment

In order to have the most productive session possible, please consider the following tips:

  1. If you can, log on a couple of minutes in advance so that your session can begin right on time.
  2. If you are having connectivity issues, please reach out to the Coordinator, Mandy Penney, to let her know that you are unable to access your session.
  3. If possible, make sure to have a digital copy of the assignment instructions/rubric/syllabus handy so that your tutor can reference them as needed
  4. Identify your key questions and concerns in advance
  5. Come prepared to think, talk, and write! These sessions are teaching-based and collaborative, and the most successful ones include participation from both the tutor and the student.
Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How many appointments can I access a week?
A: Students can book up to two 45-minute appointments a week if spaces are available, and no more than one on the same day. If no appointments are available, you could try accessing our Zoom links for writing or course tutoring. If a tutor is available to work with you on a drop-in basis, they will admit you from the waiting room into the session.

Q: Can you proofread my paper?
A: Not exactly! We will look at grammar with you if it is a concern, but our goal is to focus on the most important areas for revision in any one session. When we work with you on grammar, you will likely have to do proofreading on your own outside of the session, but you’re welcome to come back for another session to see how your changes are working!

Q: Can I get feedback on my presentation?
A: Yes! Tutors will work with you at any stage of preparation, from brainstorming, to drafting, to practicing your talk, to developing your PowerPoint slides. We will work with students on any communication piece at any stage.

Q: I am worried or nervous about using Zoom. Is my tutorial recorded?
A: No. We will never record your sessions at Writing Services, and only you and your tutor will participate in your session (when there is more than one appointment at a time, each session will take place its own breakout room). You also have the option of choosing between video, audio-only, and chat conversations with your tutor, so there is no requirement that your video be on. Asynchronous appointments are also available, in which you upload your work, and a tutor sends it back to you with written feedback at the end of the appointment time. However, live sessions offer more opportunities for you to ask questions and help the tutor focus their attention on particular concerns in your writing.

Q: I’m having trouble booking an appointment on Libcal – help!
A: We can help with that! If you’re new to Libcal and need support with booking a session, please reach out to Mandy Penney, our Coordinator, at ageorg8@uwo.ca. She can help you by either sending detailed instructions or even meeting online to help walk you through the steps. Our Digital Initiatives Librarian, Ryan Rabie, or our User Services Coordinator, Christina Vivinetto, may also be able to help!

Do you still have other questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out – we’re here to help!

Key Contacts