Writing — from essays to emails to everything in between — is perhaps the one thing shared across all majors, jobs and careers.
No matter who you are or what you’re doing, you’ll have to write something and write it well.
This kind of pressure can be scary, and so helping make writing a bit less intimidating is what the UVA Writing Center is for.
What is the UVA Writing Center?
The UVA Writing Center is a writing resource staffed by graduate and undergraduate student writing consultants and available to all UVA students. Students can visit the writing center in person for help or to utilize online resources and appointments.
What kind of support can consultants provide?
Consultants can advise on all stages of the writing process: brainstorming, drafting, revision, argument structure, editing and other concerns. Any type of writing is fair game, including essays for classes, conference papers, dissertations/theses, cover letters for applications, personal statements, resumes and more. Please note that consultants cannot proofread or edit for you. They also cannot help students with take-home exams unless the instructor has given explicit permission. Rather, consultants work with students on the assignment in question to improve their writing holistically.
What kind of sessions are offered?
In addition to in-person sessions, the writing center also offers online consultations. Online Consultation is a real-time conversation with a tutor about your work using online audio, video, chat, and/or document-sharing features in their system. Students can choose one 25-minute appointment or two back-to-back 25-minute appointments. When your session ends, the chat transcript and the whiteboard text will be saved, and you will be able to return to the appointment to view them for reference.
There is also E-Tutoring Consultation, which is an asynchronous (not real-time) option in which students submit a draft, the prompt or guidelines for that writing project, and a short list of specific questions about their writing. Tutors read the materials carefully and send back a consultation report that responds thoughtfully to your questions within 48 hours of your “appointment.” Students do not chat with the tutor or work together on the writing. An E-Tutoring Consultation works best if students have a full or partial draft and have questions about specific areas of the draft (about a thesis statement, introduction, the overall organization of the piece, about the evidence for claims, etc.). Rather than edit the draft, an E-Tutoring consultant will send tailored essay feedback to the student.
Whether you’re working on a creative writing assignment, putting together a lab report, or if you just have an idea and a couple of sentences, the UVA Writing Center can help you. So don’t be afraid to reach out and make an appointment!