Writing Center

Location: Mukilteo Hall 113

Summer Quarter Tutoring Begins Monday, July 1

Summer In-person writing tutoring hours: Mon.-Thurs., 10 a.m.-3  p.m. 

For writing tutoring, we ask that you be prepared to show us your writing on a printed document or computer. We have computers in the Center.

Masks are encouraged in the Center, and masks are preferred when you are working with a tutor or when the Center is busy.

Visit our Ask A Tutor: Live and click on the day of the week to see our schedules for Zoom tutoring.

Typically tutors are available afternoons for writing and evenings for math and sciences..

We can talk to you about any writing-related questions you have using Zoom!

These 30-minute, one-on-one sessions are all drop-in (no appointments). 

Chatting with a writing tutor when you need help understanding your assignment is a great idea. We can help you figure out what you want to write about, brainstorm ideas, outline your paper once you have several paragraphs or a full draft, and provide constructive feedback. 

You can drop in with a really quick question ("Hey, does this citation look right to you?") or something that might take a little longer ("I'd really like someone to read these 3-4 pages and talk to me about if my organization makes sense."). You can have multiple sessions in a day, but we do keep each session at 30 minutes (or less) so that we can work with as many students as possible, in the order that they have entered our virtual waiting room.

Our writing tutors can help you with any class you're taking at Edmonds College. 

It is helpful if you already have a Zoom account or have Zoom downloaded to your computer, but you *do not* have to have Zoom on your computer OR a Zoom account to participate in these sessions You can easily join using your web browser.

Click here to go to the Ask a Tutor: Live page and find links to our daily writing sessions.

If you are not able to live chat with a tutor or would just prefer to receive your feedback in writing, you can use eTutoring this quarter. The tutors at eTutoring will help you with questions related to your thesis, organization, analysis, use of quotations, citations, grammar, and more. 

Click here to learn more about eTutoring and be taken to the eTutoring website.

We ask students to use eTutoring for help with personal statements. Their tutors are trained to give feedback on personal statements and you can send a draft of your statement for feedback up to 3 times. This is a very helpful way to refine your work on your personal statement!

Click here to learn more about eTutoring and be taken to the eTutoring website. 

If you feel that the content of your writing and its organization is already in a good place, but you would really like to ask some questions about your grammar, then you should use Grammar Corner this quarter. There are options both for live chatting with a Grammar Corner instructor AND receiving written responses to your questions.

Click here to learn more about Grammar Corner.

Please note: Writing tutors only work with ELA (ESL) students currently enrolled in levels 5 and 6. We cannot work with students who are enrolled in classes at levels 1-4. 

Our tutors will help you only *after* you have already received comments back from your instructor, just the same as in our in-person writing center. The best options for you to receive help this quarter are either to come to our in-person tutoring hours, or to go online and live chat with a writing tutor using Ask a Tutor: Live OR work with a Grammar Corner instructor.

We do not recommend eTutoring for students in ELA levels 5 and 6.

Our goal is not only to help you improve your current paper but also to help you learn strategies for revising your writing on your own, without a tutor present. We aim to help you become a more confident, purposeful writer. Below you will find answers to more frequently asked questions about how the Writing Center works.

No. All of our free tutoring is on a drop-in, first-come, first-served basis. Stop by whenever you need help, and we’ll have writing assistants ready to work with you (though at peak times, there may be a wait).

We ask that you limit your online tutoring sessions to three per day, but we request that you try to adhere to no more than two 30-minute sessions. 

At our in-person space, you may have one conference with a writing assistant per day. If you want to work on the same paper more than once a week, please ensure that you’ve done significant work on your own between sessions.

Make sure to bring your assignment sheet from your instructor. We can best serve you if we know exactly what you’ve been asked to do in your paper. You should also bring any writing you’ve completed—notes, outlines, a partial draft, or a full paper. We can also discuss the assignment and help you brainstorm ideas, too! Finally, bring some questions and concerns about your writing. Have something in mind that you want to discuss with the writing assistant.

When we are tutoring online, our sessions last up to 30 minutes. You can have multiple sessions, sometimes even back-to-back, but each session is 30 minutes or less so that we may help as many students as possible.

In-person sessions typically last 20-40 minutes. They range in time depending on the questions you have about your writing and what you want help with, so a conference could be shorter than 20 minutes, but it will always be at most 40 minutes. We don’t want to overwhelm you with information, so we like to stick to that time limit.

Most of our writing assistants are students here at Edmonds College, while others are enrolled in nearby universities or already have undergraduate and graduate degrees. Our writing assistants have a variety of educational backgrounds and interests and are strong writers with friendly, supportive personalities.

Our writing assistants won’t edit or proofread your paper for you, but they are happy to model and teach you strategies for finding grammar errors and typos so you can fix them on your own.

Your concerns about your paper will help to set the agenda. That said, writing assistants will want to discuss the thesis, organization, evidence and support, and overall clarity of your paper before discussing grammar. It’s best to make sure the ideas and examples in your paper are clear and strong before focusing entirely on grammar. If your sentences are grammatically perfect but don’t help support a strong thesis, you’ll have to rewrite them anyway!

Now that you’ve worked with a writing assistant and made plans for revising your paper, start those revisions! After every writing conference, there’s still plenty of work left to do on a paper. Writing conferences are starting points for revising, but the bulk of the work will be left up to you after you finish a conference. Leave yourself enough time to adjust your work before turning it in.