The Writing Center provides free-of-charge services to any DePaul University student, alum, or faculty/staff member to help you plan, draft, revise, or polish your writing.
Our 70+ Writing Center tutors are talented, extensively trained, & supportive graduate & undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines.
You can meet with a tutor online, via written feedback, or in-person at either of our LPC or Loop Writing Center locations.
A Writing Center tutor can help you get started writing, revise your writing, and refine your writing.
Instructors
We support instructors using writing in teaching and learning. Our Writing Fellows Program and Workshops can help you and your students with the important work of writing for your course.
Writing Center Tutors are here to help you get started on your project. We can help you better understand an assignment or work together with you to develop a topic, a thesis, or main ideas.
If you already have a draft of your project, we can collaborate with you to identify what’s effective in your draft and what revisions might strengthen it. We can clarify issues in your writing such as summarizing, paraphrasing, and citing sources.
We work with writers on grammar, style, and ways to revise your work to make your writing clearer. Rather than proofread your text, our tutors can help you identify patterns of error and learn to avoid those errors in revisions & future writing.
Wondering about working with a writing center tutor? Watch How To Use DePaul's Writing Center
We use WCOnline, a web-based application, for our appointment scheduling.
To register for a WCOnline account, you must complete all required fields on our online registration form and then select the “Register” button.
You can schedule appointments on your own—at any time—using our online scheduler, WCOnline.
Once you have registered and logged in to WCOnline, you will be able to view a schedule of available appointment times and tutors. Be sure to check out our policies before scheduling your first appointment.
You may also call one of our offices during business hours: Lincoln Park: 773–325–4272 | Loop: 312–362–6726
Follow these steps to attach a document such as your draft, your assignment prompt/guidelines, or any other files related to your project or writing process that you think would be beneficial for your tutor to access.
Option 1: Attach a document at the time you schedule an appointment
Option 2: Attach a document to an already scheduled appointment
Writing Center Tutors aim to provide thorough feedback. Consider the following policies when determining the length of your appointment.
We’re able to work on:
Writing Center Tutors need at least 1 hour for Written Feedback appointments.
If you want your tutor to review a specific part of your paper (e.g. pages 8–15 in a 20-page draft for a one-hour appointment), you’ll need to indicate the page range when you make your appointment. Otherwise, the tutor will start their review at the beginning of your document.
The last 5–10 minutes of every appointment will be used to allow time for tutors to write appointment letters and transition between appointments. As a writer, you will receive an appointment letter via email after every appointment so that you have a summary of your appointment as well as a reminder of possible next steps for your writing process.
When scheduling your appointment, you will also have the option to have a copy of your appointment letter sent to your instructor or any third party you request. Letters will be sent only at a writer’s request. If you wish for a copy of your letter to be sent to your instructor, advisor, or any third party, please include their name and email address in the respective “Instructor or Third Party” boxes when making your appointment.
Appointment scheduling policies may change during final exam weeks. These changes will be announced on the log-in page of WCOnline if applicable.
WCOnline’s Waiting List feature allows writers to automatically receive an email notification or text message when an appointment has been cancelled on a given day.
If you don’t see any openings on the day you want to come in, click on the clock button and
When there is a cancellation, you will be notified.
Once you receive a notification, you will need to sign back onto WCOnline and make the appointment—the Waiting List DOES NOT automatically make an appointment for you.
Writing Center Tutors work with writers, individually or in groups, on different types of projects across multiple disciplines and media. Throughout all our work—in Face-to-Face appointments, Written Feedback appointments, and Online Realtime appointments—we emphasize collaboration, writing, and revision.
We help writers develop awareness of their own process(es) as they navigate different exigencies. In each appointment, your tutor will work with you to collaboratively set an agenda focused on one, two, or three specific topics for revision.
The Writing Center also serves as DePaul’s official source of student support for ePortfolios.
Specific details about each type of appointment the Writing Center offers are described below.
For further information, please see our Writing Center policies.
Whatever your project and wherever you are in the process, you can visit us in-person at the Lincoln Park Campus or the Loop Campus for face-to-face help.
Online appointments allow you to meet with a tutor remotely in real time and get the same quality feedback as though you were sitting face to face. You’ll meet your Writing Center Tutor online in a chatroom and/or via Webcam within WCOnline, our scheduling platform.
In a Written Feedback Appointment, you can receive feedback on your work in an asynchronous formt. You submit your project electronically and our tutors review it and email it back to you with feedback. Your tutor will write a summary letter and leave comments in the margins that you can review at your own pace.
When you make your appointment, you can attach any applicable materials to the appointment, including your writing prompt, draft, and any sources, such as an article you’re citing, to help your tutor better understand your assignment.
Follow these steps to attach a document such as your draft, your assignment prompt/guidelines, or any other files related to your project or writing process that you think would be beneficial for your tutor to access.
Option 1: Attach a document at the time you schedule an appointment
Option 2: Attach a document to an already scheduled appointment
Writing Groups are designed to provide support and feedback for specific fields of writing and/or populations of writers. They are facilitated by Writing Center tutors or administrators as well as co-facilitators from other departments when relevant. Sessions may focus on writing independently, reviewing and discussing writers’ works-in-progress, learning about writing-related topics and resources, and/or building community. The focus is determined by the writers’ needs, and the meeting’s agenda is developed collaboratively by the facilitator(s) and writers.
If you know you can’t make your appointment, please cancel your appointment as soon as possible so that other writers may use that time.
To cancel your appointment, login to WCOnline to access your appointment on the schedule. Open your appointment, scroll to the bottom of your appointment window, and select the “Cancel this Appointment” button. You should then see a message that confirms your appointment was successfully canceled.
There is no penalty for canceling an appointment, even up to 10 minutes after the start time of an appointment.
However, appointments that are not canceled are marked as missed 10 minutes after the start of the appointment if you haven’t arrived at the writing center for a face to face appointment or logged in to meet your tutor in an online realtime appointment. Written feedback appointments are marked as missed if you have not uploaded your draft by the appointment start time.
If you know you cannot make an appointment, it is important to cancel your appointment as soon as possible so that other writers may use that time.
Additionally, if you know you will be 10 or more minutes late to an appointment, please contact the Writing Center in order to avoid having a missed appointment or to reschedule if needed.
There is no penalty for canceling a face-to-face or online realtime appointment up to 10 minutes after the scheduled start time. There is no penalty for canceling a Written Feedback appointment by the scheduled start time.
Face-to-face or online realtime appointments that are not canceled are marked as missed 10 minutes after the start of the appointment if:
Written feedback appointments that are not canceled are marked as missed if you haven’t uploaded a draft for a Written Feedback appointment by the scheduled start time.
If you accumulate three missed appointments during the course of a single quarter, your Writing Center account is automatically suspended, and you will only be able to use the Writing Center to access day-of appointments (if appointments are available on the schedule) either by walking in or calling in to one of our centers to request an appointment.
If your account has been suspended, you may request your account be reinstated once per quarter. Contact writingcenter@depaul.edu to make your request and confirm you understand the Missed Appointment policy.
If you accrue any additional missed appointments during the same quarter when your account was initially suspended, your account will be automatically suspended again. Your account will remain suspended for the duration of that quarter. In that case, you 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.
Peer writing tutors will work with you at any stage of your writing process, even when you’re just getting started, so you don’t need to have a draft or even an outline.
Each appointment focuses on one writing project, and tutors can respond to up to 4 double-spaced pages per half hour, 8 double-spaced pages per hour, 12 double-spaced pages per 1.5 hours, and 16 double-spaced pages per 2 hours.
Be prepared to explain to your tutor what you’re working on. This could be anything from an assignment for class, to a poetry chapbook, to a website or slides for a presentation. You can come with a full draft, just your ideas and questions, or anything in between.
Upload materials related to your writing project or share them with your tutor in the online realtime appointment. If you’re writing something for class, please bring or upload the assignment, your notes, relevant course texts, and/or anything else that could help your tutor understand what you’re working on and better support your writing process.
Think about any questions and goals you have. What do you want your tutor to help you with? What are you trying to get out of your appointment? Even if you’re not exactly sure, try to give these questions some thought ahead of time.
Approach the appointment with energy, openness, and willingness to work hard, focus on your writing, collaborate generously with your tutor, try new things, and grow as a writer!
Upload your full or partial draft to your appointment before the start time of your appointment. Each appointment focuses on one writing project, and tutors can respond to up to 8 double-spaced pages per hour, up to 12 double-spaced pages per 1.5 hours, and up to 16 double-spaced pages per 2 hours.
Upload materials related to your writing project. If you’re writing something for class, please upload the assignment, your notes, relevant course texts, and/or anything else that could help your tutor understand what you’re working on and better support your writing process.
Explain to your tutor what you’re working on in your appointment form. Your detailed explanation enables your tutor to understand the context and expectations for your writing so that they can provide the most specific and helpful feedback as possible.
Explain to your tutor what kind(s) of feedback you are seeking on your appointment form. Let your tutor know what you want them to help you with and what you are hoping to get out of the appointment. Consider any questions and goals you have.
The Writing Center supports all writers, including those with disabilities. Let us know how we can help facilitate your learning in an appointment or improve your experience with the Writing Center when you register your account or by updating your profile.
The Writing Center works hard to be transparent about our policies and procedures and to enforce them with fairness and consistency.
Each staff member, and anyone in our online and physical spaces who uses our services or otherwise interacts with our office, must adhere to the applicable DePaul-wide regulations and procedures outlined by the Compliance Office, the University Policy and Procedures Office, the Undergraduate Student Handbook, DePaul’s Speech & Expression Policies & Procedures, and the Graduate Student Handbook.
Any DePaul University students, faculty, staff, and alumni may use the Writing Center.
You may create and use only one account to schedule appointments with the Writing Center.
When you set up your account, please use an email address you use and check regularly in order to receive emails about appointment confirmations or cancellations.
Duplicate accounts will be deleted.
If you forget your password, please do not create a new account. Instead, reset your password for your WCOnline account or contact the Writing Center for assistance.
You may not share an account with another writer. Appointments made for someone other than the account holder will be canceled.
Violations of these policies may result in suspension of your account or termination of Writing Center access.
You may schedule up to 2 hours of appointments per day and 5 hours of appointments per week. These limits apply to all appointments scheduled on your Writing Center account, regardless of campus location or appointment type.
If you need more tutoring hours in a particular week, you can email the Writing Center at writingcenter@depaul.edu to request more hours.
Appointments may be scheduled for 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1.5 hours, or 2 hours depending on the appointment type:
All appointments will have a 5–10 minutes set aside at the end of the appointment for tutors to compose an appointment letter.
Regardless of appointment type, tutors provide feedback on:
If you bring in or submit an ePortfolio, a presentation (such as a PowerPoint or Prezi), or any multimodal project for feedback, your tutor will assess the amount of feedback they are able to provide within the scheduled appointment length.
You are encouraged to specify on your appointment form or in-person with your tutor any particular page(s), section(s), or aspect(s) of your paper or project that you would like your tutor to prioritize for feedback.
Sometimes, particularly during peak times of the quarter, the Writing Center will be fully booked. When this happens, you can request to be signed up for the Waiting List.
WCOnline’s Waiting List feature allows you to automatically receive an email notification or text message when an appointment has been cancelled on a given day.
If you don’t see any openings on the day you want to come in, click on the clock button and
When there is a cancellation, you will be notified.
Once you receive a notification, you will need to sign back onto WCOnline and make the appointment—the Waiting List DOES NOT automatically make an appointment for you.
You may find that you want to make repeating appointments in order to reserve a regular time and day with a particular peer writing tutor.
You can make a repeat appointment for once a week, once every two weeks, or once a month.
If you know you want to book a repeating appointment but do not have a preference on which tutor you want to work with, the receptionsit will match you with someone who is available.
To book a repeat appointment:
Your repeating appointment will last through the current quarter, and each new quarter you will have to request a new repeating appointment if you want to continue those services.
If you know you cannot make an appointment, it is important to cancel your appointment as soon as possible so that other writers may use that time.
Additionally, if you know you will be 10 or more minutes late to an appointment, please contact the Writing Center in order to avoid having a missed appointment or to reschedule if needed.
There is no penalty for canceling a face-to-face or online realtime appointment up to 10 minutes after the scheduled start time. There is no penalty for canceling a Written Feedback appointment by the scheduled start time.
Face-to-face or online realtime appointments that are not canceled are marked as missed 10 minutes after the start of the appointment if:
Written feedback appointments that are not canceled are marked as missed if you haven’t uploaded a draft for a Written Feedback appointment by the scheduled start time.
If you accumulate three missed appointments during the course of a single quarter, your Writing Center account is automatically suspended, and you will only be able to use the Writing Center to access day-of appointments (if appointments are available on the schedule) either by walking in or calling in to one of our centers to request an appointment.
If your account has been suspended, you may request your account be reinstated once per quarter. Contact writingcenter@depaul.edu to make your request and confirm you understand the Missed Appointment policy.
If you accrue any additional missed appointments during the same quarter when your account was initially suspended, your account will be automatically suspended again. Your account will remain suspended for the duration of that quarter. In that case, you 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.
You will receive an appointment letter via email after every appointment so that you have a summary of your appointment as well as a reminder of possible next steps for your writing process.
The last 5 minutes of your appointment will be used by your tutor to write an appointment letter.
When scheduling your appointment, you will also have the option to have a copy of your appointment report sent to your instructor or any third party you request. Reports will be sent only at a writer’s request. If you wish for a copy of your report to be sent to your instructor, advisor, or any third party, please include their email address in the respective “Instructor or Third Party” boxes when making your appointment.
Your appointment and associated documents may be observed and reviewed for record-keeping, training, and quality-assurance purposes.
Tutors, writers, and all other students, faculty, and staff who use the Writing Center are expected to abide by the Academic Integrity Policy, the University Code of Conduct and/or the Code of Student Responsibility. In addition to adhering to these codes, we also expect writers and staff to treat each other with respect.
During a face to face or online realtime appointment, your attention and the tutor’s should be on the appointment. Please put away anything that might distract you. We understand of course that interruptions may happen during an appointment, particularly for those of us sharing our spaces with others.
Please do not make frequent or repeated appointments without taking previous feedback into account.
In addition to adhering to DePaul’s Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy (DePaul Login Required) as well as its Sexual & Relationship Violence Prevention & Response Policy (DePaul Login Required), any harassment or unwelcome conduct is prohibited in any interaction with the Writing Center and any member of our staff. Unwelcome conduct includes but is not limited to the use of offensive or demeaning language, expressing romantic or sexual interest when tutors are working, and violating any of the policies listed above.
If you have questions about what constitutes harassment or unwelcome conduct, ask your tutor or reach out to one of the Writing Center administrators.
Inappropriate or threatening behavior will be reported to the Dean of Students.
