How to Set Up an Appointment & Other Ways to Utilize the Writing Center

Hello, readers! My name is Emma Ellard. I’m a tutor and receptionist here at the MC Writing Center, so I get to see both sides of the appointment. Lots of people visit the Writing Center throughout the day, and one thing that I’ve noticed is that their level of knowledge about how the Center works is about as diverse as they are. Some people are regulars; some people are first-timers; some people come because of their teachers’ encouragement to book an appointment; some find out about the Center themselves, and they visit us not knowing exactly what to expect. Others may never book an appointment, not knowing where to even start.

I get it – making an appointment can be intimidating, especially when you’re not exactly familiar with what to do! In today’s blog post, I’d like to clear some things up about the basics of Writing Center appointments. I’m going to walk you through the steps to make an appointment so that you can do it confidently. Plus, I’ll let you in on some lesser-known ways to utilize the Writing Center to keep in mind for your next session!

Thanks to modern technology, you can book your appointment with the Writing Center online! The Writing Center homepage on the MC website – which you can find by searching “writing center” on the MC homepage, or by clicking the link at the bottom of this article – features a button that says “Schedule Appointment.” By clicking it, you’ll get to our appointment management page, mc.mywconline.com.

Here, you’ll find a series of schedules – these schedules are the appointment schedules for each day at the Writing Center. On the left side, you’ll see the names of all the tutors who are working that day, and across the top, each hour that the Writing Center is open is listed. From here, you can follow these steps:

• Step One: Figure out what time you want your appointment, between 9am - 8pm Monday-Thursday, 9am - 3pm Friday.

• Step Two: Find an open slot at that time with the tutor of your choice – there may be two to four people available to meet with you at that time, so to help decide which one might be best for you, you can use the "limit to" option at the top. This will limit your tutor options to the ones who specialize in each area of expertise. Don’t stress about that too much, though; all of our tutors are well-versed in writing and able to help!

• Step Three: You can choose whether you want a 30-minute session or an hour-long session, depending on how much work you want to do with your tutor!

• Step Four: Pick what kind of appointment you want: face to face, correspondence, or online chat. Face to face appointments are pretty self-explanatory – you’ll come to the Writing Center at the time that you scheduled with your writing on hand (whether in print or on a computer), and you and another tutor will have a one-on-one conversation, where you can voice questions and concerns and your tutor can give you feedback. (These appointments will show up as blue on the schedule.) Correspondence appointments involve sending in a digital copy of your paper, and preferably an assignment sheet or rubric, for your tutor to look over; then, they can make comments on your paper and send you written feedback. (These appointments will show up as green on the schedule.) Online chat, predictably enough, involves you and a tutor chatting about your paper via video call and online chat box. (These appointments will show up as red on the schedule.)

• Step Five: Fill out the questionnaire. Be prepared to answer basic questions about your assignment (like course, professor, and due date), and make sure to let us know what you want to work on in your appointment.

• Step Six: Attach any relevant documents, including a draft or outline of your paper if you have one, and an assignment sheet or rubric, so your tutor knows what your teacher wants.

Press the magic “Create Appointment” button, and you’re done! Congrats – you’ve scheduled an appointment! To review it or make changes to it at any time before or after your session, you can go back to mc.mywconline.com and click on the slot you booked.

If you need an appointment ASAP but haven’t booked one online, or if you’ve gone over these steps and still feel lost when it comes to booking appointments online – no worries! We take walk-ins! Just stop by the Writing Center and one of our receptionists will help you walk through all the steps listed above.

I hope this helped unravel some of the confusion around booking Writing Center appointments! If you have any questions about how to book a session or what to expect from a session, our receptionists, tutors, and directors are always around to help; just stop by the Writing Center, or reach us by phone or email!

Happy writing!

The Writing Center is located on the first floor of the Leland Speed Library across from the Gore Art Gallery.

Find the Writing Center homepage here.

Schedule your appointment here!

Come and see us during our hours of operation:

Monday-Thursday: 9am - 8pm

Friday: 9am - 3pm