You can meet with a writing center tutor via video and/or chat in an online realtime appointment, upload a draft for written feedback, or come to one of our office locations in either Lincoln Park or the Loop to meet with a tutor in a face to face appointment.
Online Realtime appointments give you the chance to talk to a tutor in real time, either by using a chat box or audio & video—or both.
Online Realtime appointments are helpful at any stage of your writing process. They are ideal for brainstorming and talking your ideas out with a tutor.
Make an Online Realtime appointment if you want feedback on and help with an ePortfolio or any other design-based writing project.
Online Realtime Appointment Policies & How-Tos
Each Online Realtime appointment is 30, 60, 90, or 120 minutes.
At the beginning of each appointment, you and your tutor will collaboratively plan an agenda for your time together, so before you meet online, think of any questions you have for your tutor or any specific goals you have for the appointment.
One Assignment Per Appointment
We do limit each appointment to a focus on only one assignment or aspect of writing. Asking a tutor for advice about two or more different assignments unfortunately isn't realisitic given time constraints and how important it is for a tutor to understand your assignment when providing guidance and feedback.
Starting an Online Realtime Appointment
When your appointment time is close to starting, log into WCOnline and select the red link that says, “Start or Join Online Consultation” from your appointment window.
Appointments When You Don't Have a Draft
If you need help getting started writing, you and your tutor can look over your writing prompt, brainstorm ideas, and write up notes, next steps, or an outline if that helps you.
If you don't have a particular assignment, you can make an Online Realtime appointment to discuss things like improving grammar, understanding citation styles, and any other aspect of writing.
Draft-based Appointment Policies
For draft-based appointments, we’re able to work on:
- 4 double-spaced pages of writing per .5 hour
- 8 double-spaced pages of writing per 1 hour
- 12 double-spaced pages of writing per 1.5 hours
- 16 double-spaced pages of writing per 2 hours
Once you login and start your appointment, you can upload the paper or copy and paste the text into the collaborative rich-text editor. You and your tutor can review the paper together and make changes to it in real-time.
Because of how our tutors are scheduled for appointments, we can't ask them to read your draft before the appointment starts. That said, reading your draft during the appointment has benefits for you and the tutor.
In a Written Feedback Appointment, you can receive feedback on your work no matter where you are or when you’re free. 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. Written feedback appointments are most effective when you have at least a partial draft of your project for a tutor to review.
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 help you.
How A Written Feedback Appointment Works
- Access WCOnline to submit your paper. For Written Feedback appointments, we can only work with editable file types (e.g. .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .rtf).
- A Written Feedback appointment must have a minimum time of 60 minutes (1 hour) in order to allow time for your tutor to access and read your draft before offering comprehensive feedback.
- In order for our tutors to provide thorough feedback, please consider your priorities for revision when determining the length of your appointment. We’re able to work on:
- 8 double-spaced pages of writing per 1 hour
- 12 double-spaced pages of writing per 1.5 hours
- 16 double-spaced pages of writing per 2 hours
- 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.
- When you set up your appointment, make sure to give your tutor as much information about the assignment or project as possible, including the kind of help you’re interested in, such as feedback on how the draft follows the project requirements or how you develop your argument, help with developing content or a counter-argument, suggestions for how to organize your draft or a particular section of it, or feedback on recurring issues with particular aspects of grammar or punctuation.
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.
- Bring any materials you need to the appointment, such as your draft, prompt, and/or any sources you’re using.
- In order for our tutors to provide thorough feedback, please consider your priorities for revision when determining the length of your appointment. We’re able to work on:
- 4 double-spaced pages of writing per 30 minutes
- 8 double-spaced pages of writing per 1 hour
- 12 double-spaced pages of writing per 1.5 hours
- 16 double-spaced pages of writing per 2 hours
- Your tutor will work with you to determine what you will spend time working on during the appointment, so before you arrive, try to prepare questions for your Writing Center Tutor or some goals for the tutorial.
- Expect to try our core practice of reading aloud: you (or the tutor, if you prefer) will usually read your draft out loud. Many writers—including us tutors!—find that this strategy is useful, particularly when looking for content or patterns of error to revise and readability for an audience.
- You may also work on prewriting, brainstorming, working under pressure, improving grammar, and other aspects of writing, even if you do not have a draft or a particular assignment.
Scheduling Appointments
You can schedule appointments on your own—at any time—using our online scheduler, WCOnline.
You may also Chat with a Tutor during open hours using the tab at the bottom of your screen/web browser.
If you have further questions about scheduling an appointment: Email us
- Log in from our website or go directly to http://depaul.mywconline.com.
- You will be taken to the schedule for the current day. To change the day, use the links below the drop-down menu or click on the calendar icon to pick a specific day during the current quarter.
- The tutors available during a given time slot will have white schedule blocks in the row beside their names. You can view a tutor’s bio when you click on any white schedule block. You can also use the “Limit to” drop-down menu above the schedule to search for tutors with specific areas of expertise.
- Once you know the day, time, and tutor you would like to work with, click on the appropriate white schedule block. A new window will open, so please ensure you have pop-up blocked disabled on your browser. If there are no available appointments during the time you would like, you may select the clock button on your preferred date to add your name to the waitlist. Please note that writers on the waitlist are not automatically added to the schedule–if an appointment time opens up, all writers on the waitlist for that time will be automatically notified about the opening, but you will need to log in or call the Writing Center to schedule the appointment.
- Use the drop down boxes to adjust the length of your appointment, keeping in mind the required minimum and maximum appointment lengths:
… Written Feedback Appointments: 1 hour minimum, 2 hour maximum
… Online Realtime Appointments: 30 hour minimum, 2 hour maximum - To schedule an Online Realtime appointment, respond to the “Meet Online?” question by selecting “Yes - Online Realtime Appointment” from the drop-down menu.
… To meet your tutor online, log back onto WCOnline and select the red link that says, “Start or Join Online Consultation” from your appointment window approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the start of your appointment. - Choose an appointment type (Written Feedback or Online Realtime) from the drop-down list.
- If you wish for a copy of your appointment letter to be sent to your instructor, advisor, or any third party, please indicate that on your appointment form and include their name and email address in the respective boxes.
- If applicable, please list the course and due date for the project you are working on.
- Give a detailed description of your assignment as well as a summary of your main concerns and any specific topics or areas on which you are seeking feedback. Your tutor will use this information to prepare for your tutorial. You can also attach your assignment prompt or any relevant materials after you save the appointment.
- Select “Save Appointment” to schedule your appointment.
How To Attach Files to An Appointment: Step-By-Step
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
- Follow the steps above to log in and schedule an appointment.
- Once you have saved your appointment, you should see a “Success!” message confirming your appointment. Select “click here” beneath the success message to attach a file.
- Complete the “Attach a File” form by selecting the “Choose File” button to find the file on your computer.
- Add a “Document Title” to inform your tutor what document you are attaching.
- Select “Upload File.”
- You should see a green banner stating “Your file has been attached successfully!” on the “Attach a File” window.
- Repeat steps 3–6 to attach additional files.
- When you are finished attaching files to your appointment, select “Close Window.”
- Confirm your file(s) has been attached by reviewing the appointment form for your appointment. Select the gold box on the schedule that indicates your appointment time, then scroll to the bottom of the appointment window to review what has been attached in the “Attached Files” section.
Option 2: Attach a document to an already scheduled appointment
- Log into your account.
- Select the yellow folder icon in the upper left corner of the page beneath the “Welcome.” A separate window will pop up labeled “Attach a File.” If you do not see a pop-up window, please check to ensure pop-up blocker is disabled on your internet browser.
- From the “Appointment” drop down, select which of your scheduled appointments you want to attach the file(s) to.
- Use the “Choose File” button to find the file on your computer.
- Add a “Document Title” to inform your tutor what document you are attaching.
- Select “Upload File.”
- You should see a green banner stating “Your file has been attached successfully!” on the “Attach a File” window.
- Repeat steps 3–7 to attach additional files.
- When you are finished attaching file(s) to your appointment(s), select “Close Window.”
- Confirm your file(s) has been attached by reviewing the appointment form for your appointment. Select the gold box on the schedule that indicates your appointment time, then scroll to the bottom of the appointment window to review what has been attached in the “Attached Files” section.
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
- either click Add to Waiting List to receive an email notification
- or enter your cell phone email address to receive a text message.
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.
Resources & Scholarship
Reading, writing, and professional conversation about outreach enables us to reflect, learn from the work of others, connect with other writing center communities, and contribute to the larger conversations about theory, advocacy, and best practices. The following resources consist of selected scholarly readings that inform our practices, our conference presentations, and our published works.
Selected Outreach Scholarship
Anzaldua, G. (1987/1999). Borderlands/La Frontera: The new Mestiza. (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute.
Ashley, H. (2012). The idea of a literacy dula. In Restaino, J. and Cella, L. (Eds.). Unsustainable: Re-imagining Community Literacy, Public Writing, Service-Learning, and the University. Cultural Studies/Pedagogy/Activism. Lexington Books/Rowman and Littlefield.
Bartholomae, D. (1986). Inventing the university. In Rose, M. (Ed.), When a writer can't write: research on writer's block and other writing problems. (pp. 134—166). New York: Guilford.
Berlin, J. (1988). Rhetoric & ideology in the writing class. College English, 50(5), 477—494.
Bruffee, K. (1984, November). Collaborative learning and the conversation of mankind. College English, 46(7), 635—652.
Carino, P. (1992) What do we talk about when we talk about our metaphors: A cultural critique of clinic, lab, and center." Writing Center Journal, 13(1), 31—43.
Carnoy, M. (1974). Education as cultural imperialism. New York: David McCay.
Clark, I. L. and Healy, D. (1996). Are writing centers ethical? Writing Program Administration, 20(1/2), 32-48.
Cronon, W. (1998). "Only connect": The goals of a liberal education. The American Scholar, 67(4), 73—80.
Coughlin, E., Finstrom, J., Kerper, E., Lyon, K., & Sastri, S. (2012, Fall). Outreach and third space. East Central Writing Centers Association.
Deciding on structure: Affinity group or intergroup work. (2012). Intergroup resources.
Ethical issues in community (Section 5). (2014). Community Tool Box.
Gee, J. P. (1989). What is literacy? Journal of Education, 171(1), 18—25.
Gillespie, P., Gillam, A., Brown, L. F., Stay, B. (Eds.). (2002). Writing Center Research: Extending the Conversation. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Goldblatt, E. (2005). Alinsky's reveille: A community-organizing model for neighborhood-based literacy projects. College English, 67(3), 274—295.
Goleman, D. (2015, April 7). How to be emotionally intelligent. New York Times.
Hemmeter, T. (1992). The "smack of difference": The language of writing center discourse. Writing Center Journal, 11(1), 35-48.
Hughes, B., Gillespie, P., and Kail, H. (2010). What they take with them: Findings from the Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project. Writing Center Journal 30(2), 12—46.
Kail, H. (2002). Review of writing center research: Extending the conversation. College Composition and Communication, 54(2), 315-318.
Levinas, E. (1969). Totality and infinity. (A. Lingis, Trans.). Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
Licona, A. C. (2005). (B)orderlands' rhetorics and representations: The transformative potential of feminist third-space scholarship and zines. NWSA Journal, 17(2), 104—129.
Mauk, J. (2003, March). "Location, location, location: The "real" (e)states of being, writing, and thinking in composition. College English, 65(4), 368—88.
Moje, E. B. et al. (2004). Working toward third space in content area literacy: An examination of everyday funds of knowledge and discourse. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(1), (2004), 38-71.
Ncube, L. B., and Wasburn, M. H. (2006). Strategic collaboration for ethical leadership: A mentoring framework for business and organizational decision making. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 13(1), 77—92. Web.
Petit, A. (1997). The writing center as "purified space": Competing discourses and the dangers of definition. Writing Center Journal, 17(2), 111—122.
Reynolds, N. (1998). Composition's imagined geographies: The politics of space in the frontier, city, and cyberspace. College Composition and Communication, 50.1, 2—35.
Routledge, P. (1996). The Third Space as Critical Engagement. Antipode. 28(4), 399—419.
Wilson, N. E. (2011). The writing center as bodega: Making a third space in academia for global Englishes and alternative discourses. University of Texas at San Antonio.
Looking to Publish?
Check out the Community Literacy Journal!
Our Collaboration Partners
Outreach collaborates with a diverse network of intra campus partnerships and local service organizations. Below is a directory of our communities in collaboration.
DePaul Peer Tutor and Mentor Summit Committee Partners
- Athletic Academic Advising
- DePaul University Library
- International Student and Scholar Services (ISS)
- Office of Multicultural Student Success (OMSS)
- Office of Student Developmentin the Office of Student Affairs
- Office of Student Employment
- Quantitative Reasoning Center (QRC)
- Supplemental Instruction (SI)
- TRiO/Student Support Services
DePaul Collaborating Departments & Offices
- College of Science and Health
- English Language Academy (ELA)
- Kellstadt Graduate College of Business
- New Student and Family Engagement (NSFE)
- Office of Admissions
- Office of Adult, Veteran, and Commuter Student Affairs
- University Ministry
- Veteran Student Services in the Office of Student Affairs
- Vincentian Community Service Office (VCSO)
- College of Education
- Department of Women’s and Gender Studies
- School for New Learning
DePaul Community Collaborations
Past DePaul Partnerships and Collaborating Departments & Offices
- Career Center
- College of Computing and Digital Media
- Department of Finance with Humble Pen
- Kellstadt Graduate School of Business
- Office of Health Promotion and Wellness
Communities and Collaborations Beyond DePaul—Present
- Academy of American Poets for National Poetry Month
- American Library Association Banned and Challenged Books for Banned Books Week
- Carl Schurz High School and the Gates Millennium Scholars Program
- International Writing Centers Association for International Writing Centers Week (IWCW)
- National Council of Teachers of English for National Day on Writing
- On the Money with the Economic Awareness Council
- Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute Blog