Tutoring FAQs

Yes, All sessions in the Writing Support Center are provided remotely through our WSC Canvas student resources.

Tutoring sessions are 15-25 minutes long.

They cannot look over an entire essay in 25 minutes, as tutors are trained to focus on one or two key elements when reviewing a student’s essay. For this reason, we recommend that you have an idea of what you’d like to work on when you come in for tutoring.

You can have as many sessions as you’d like in a day. However, please note that we do not encourage students to sign-up for back-to-back sessions, as we highly recommend that students implement tutoring feedback before signing up for another session.

Bring the assignment prompt from your instructor, a pen or pencil, a draft of your assignment if you have one, and any questions or concerns you may have. If you are using outside sources for your assignment, it is helpful to bring those as well.

During a tutoring session, the tutor will ask what you are working on, what step you are at in the writing process, and the specific issues you would like to address. From there, the tutor will use various methods to help you with any areas of concern. For example, they may ask you to read your paper or parts of your paper out loud, ask you for more background knowledge on the topic of the assignment, and/or provide you with resources to ease the writing process.

The Writing Center is not an editing or proofreading service. The main role of the tutor is to help the student become a confident and independent writer better writer by talking with you about your paper and writing process. Even though tutors will not correct or edit a paper for you, they can help you develop the skills and strategies to locate and fix your own errors. Overall, tutors will help you with your assignment, but their ultimate goal is to help you develop the skills to become a better writer.

A DLA is a Directed Learning Activity that is a worksheet or packet that focuses on different writing topics and is meant to help you practice and develop your skills in specific writing areas. You can choose to do these on your own, or you may be referred to do one by your instructor. You can ask any tutor or front desk ambassador for a DLA.

DLAs are meant to be worked on independently. You can request one if you work on the DLA in the center, or you can take up to two to work on at home. Once completed, you will need to schedule a 15 minute follow-up session with a tutor, and tutors can only review one DLA per session. They will review the DLA with you and check for understanding. Once finished reviewing, they will sign the DLA, which marks that you’ve completed the DLA.

It depends. The WSC uses PCC Connect for all referrals and tutoring visit summaries. After each session, tutors will type up notes and a summary of the outcomes of your session, which will be emailed to you and also available on PCC Connect. If you were referred to the WSC verbally or if you came in for a session on your own, you can either print out or forward the email to your instructors if you need proof of visitation to the WSC. Only instructors who referred their students to the WSC through PCC Connect will be notified automatically.