The Writing Center works with any member of the DePaul community on any writing project at any stage of the writing process.
Writing Center Tutors collaborate with writers to help them develop and produce better writing. The Writing Center supports writers as they engage in academic, personal, professional, and collaborative communication. We work with writers—individually or in groups—on different types of projects across multiple disciplines and media. We help writers develop awareness of their own process(es) as they navigate different exigencies (urgencies, needs, or demands). The Writing Center also serves as DePaul’s official source of student support for ePortfolios. Peer tutors offer insight and support for the design, technical aspects, and content of ePortfolios.
Throughout all our work—in all appointment types—we emphasize collaboration, writing, and revision.
➡️ Types of Appointments
Written Feedback Appointments
Online Realtime Appointments
Face-to-Face Appointments🗄️ Record Keeping
The Writing Center uses WCOnline to organize and streamline our operations. All Writing Center staff commitments and work are recorded in WCOnline. Writing Center employees are given a certain amount of administrative access in WCOnline to register writers, view writers’ demographic information, and record their work activity by writing appointment letters.
⏳ Appointment Duration
Writers may schedule appointments for 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1.5 hours, or 2 hours depending on the appointment type:
- Written Feedback Appointments: 1 hour minimum, 2 hour maximum
- Online Realtime Appointments: 30 minutes minimum, 2 hour maximum
- Face-to-Face Appointments: 30 minutes minimum, 2 hour maximum
⌛ Allotted Appointment Time
Because writing is such a complicated and process-based endeavor, we give writers many opportunities to work with us each week. Writers may schedule Face-to-Face, Online Realtime, and Written Feedback appointments for up to 120 minutes per day (2 hours) and 300 minutes (5 hours) per week. These limits apply to all appointments scheduled on their Writing Center account, regardless of campus location or appointment type.
If a writer has circumstances which may warrant extra hours of tutoring, the writer may request additional hours by emailing Katie Brown.
➖ Appointment Cancellation
There is no penalty for canceling an appointment, even up to the start time of a Written Feedback appointment, or 10 minutes after the start time of a Face-to-Face or Online Realtime appointment.
🤦 Missed Appointments
Synchronous Appointments are marked as missed 10 minutes after the start of the appointment.
- For Face-to-Face appointments if a Writer hasn’t arrived at the Writing Center
- For Online Realtime appointments if a Writer hasn’t logged in to meet their tutor
Written Feedback appointments are marked as missed if no draft has been uploaded by the appointment start time.
If writers accumulate three missed appointments during the course of a single quarter, their Writing Center account is automatically suspended, and writers will only be able to use the Writing Center to access day-of appointments (if appointments are available on the schedule) either by walking or calling in to one of our centers to request an appointment.
If their account has been suspended, writers may request their account be reinstated once per quarter by contacting Writing Center Associate Director Katie Brown to make their request and confirm that they understand the Missed Appointment policy.
If writers accrue any additional missed appointments during the same quarter when their account was initially suspended, their account will be automatically suspended again. Their account will remain suspended for the duration of that quarter. In that case, writers may still access day-of appointments at the Writing Center as described above.
All accounts are reset to zero missed appointments at the beginning of each quarter.
🥳 First Time Writers
Occasionally a writer will schedule an appointment by phone or in person at the reception desk without registering for a Writing Center account. In these cases, the 
Receptionist makes an account for them on WCOnline or walks them through the process. If you are scheduled for an appointment with a writer who has never visited the Writing Center before, familiarize the writer with our schedule and help them with any questions about the interface or our policies.
Receptionist makes an account for them on WCOnline or walks them through the process. If you are scheduled for an appointment with a writer who has never visited the Writing Center before, familiarize the writer with our schedule and help them with any questions about the interface or our policies. 🚶 Walk-In Appointments
Sometimes writers stop by the Writing Center to see if any Writing Center Tutors are immediately available. We welcome these writers and do our best to accommodate them when possible. The Receptionist will add their name to the schedule if possible.
Writing Center Tutors are immediately available. We welcome these writers and do our best to accommodate them when possible. The Receptionist will add their name to the schedule if possible.If a walk-in appointment is shorter than 30 minutes, collaborate with the writer on an agenda that will work in the time you have.
👥 Repeating Appointments
Some writers may benefit from regular, repeating appointments with the same Writing Center Tutor over the course of a few weeks or the entire quarter. For example, writers working on large projects every week may be interested in setting up standing appointments.
Writers can set up regularly-scheduled standing appointments, allowing them to work with the same Writing Center Tutor at the same time each week. Tutors can recommend a standing appointment with themself to a writer, or direct a writer to a tutor who would work well with them over an extended period of time.
Working with a Writer in Repeating Appointments
When you begin your work with a writer in standing appointments, take time during your first session to set both short-term and long-term agendas. Decide which tutoring modalities will work best for the writer (e.g., exclusively Face-to-Face, Written Feedback, and/or Online Realtime). Revisit the writer’s long-term agenda periodically and make adjustments based on your progress.
If you have a standing appointment, track missed appointments and notify the Receptionist if a writer misses 3 appointments. The Receptionist will then cancel the writer’s remaining appointments.
Receptionist will then cancel the writer’s remaining appointments.