Writing Center Appointment Policies:
Number of appointments allowed per week: Students can have two appointments per week.
Proof or verification of appointments: The WC will send professors an email after an appointment. Students need to talk with the tutor at the front desk.
Requesting a specific tutor for your appointments: Provided that a particular tutor is available during the hours that you request, he or she can see you on a regular basis.
Missed appointments and cancellations: When the Writing Center is booked, the only way students can get appointments is if we have a cancellation. When the WC is full, you may be able to get an appointment at ten minutes past any hour if someone doesn’t show up for an appointment.
Late policy for appointments: All appointments begin on the hour. We hold the appointment for 10 minutes. If a student doesn’t show up, the appointment is considered a no-show and will be given away to a drop-in student. There is no penalty for cancellations, but there is a penalty for no-shows. Please remember that our appointments are in demand. Being a no-show means taking away an appointment from someone else. Students are allowed two missed appointments per semester (without any attempt to contact us and cancel or reschedule ahead of time). After two appointments are missed, a student’s WCOnline account will be disabled.
Required appointments: The Writing Center is a voluntary service. The WC has a limited number of tutors and appointments and is unable to offer teaching assistance for individual instructors, courses, or departments.
Distance appointments: Students can make distance appointments on WCOnline — https://odu.mywconline.com
Proof of an appointment: The WC provides students with verification. It is up to the student whether s/he wants to provide that to the instructor. Most students do. In order for the appointment to receive verification, it must last at least 20 minutes. Substantive feedback is difficult to achieve in less than 20 minutes. Because of the high volume of students who come in and pressures on tutors to manage the office and tutoring appointments, we cannot keep lists for individual professors. The WC would like it to remain the students’ choice to seek our services.
No-shows: Please let the Writing Center know if you are unable to make your appointment (call 757.683.4013). After two missed appointments, you will be unable to schedule an appointment for the remainder of the semester.
Disability: In accordance with all university policies and the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Writing Center is accessible to all students. The WC will work with students and with the Office of Educational Accessibility to provide accommodations for students with disabilities.
Discontinuance of service or dismissal of students: Students may not misrepresent themselves in any way when scheduling an appointment. Such misrepresentations include, but are not limited to, falsely identifying yourself as another student, falsely identifying yourself as a student when you are not enrolled at ODU, or identifying yourself as a student once you have graduated. In certain cases, we may contact the Office of Academic Integrity to pursue disciplinary actions against any students who are violating the “Code of Students Responsibilities.”
Disruptive behavior: The Writing Center reserves the right to end sessions and ask disruptive or disrespectful students to leave. If at any time a student is deemed unsafe, tutors will call Campus Security to report the student.
Editing: The WC does not line-edit or proofread.
Exams: If students seek help on exams, the WC needs written permission from an instructor via an email to the WC Director. We ask instructors to email the Director and state their name, course title, and whether or not permission is for an entire class or for individuals within the class.
Grades:
For students:
We can’t predict grades, and your grade on an assignment should be something you discuss with your instructor. We respect the confidentiality of every tutorial session and keep your records private. Evaluation is reserved for professors; however, we are here to encourage you to become better critics of your own writing. We cannot try to guess at your grade.
For faculty:
The WC requests that tutoring visits not be connected to grades in any way (for a grade, extra points, or extra credit). The WC cannot control the students’ use of tutors’ advice once the student leaves the WC, and we cannot predict how the student will represent their experience or visit to the WC.
Groups: The WC can provide assistance with collaborative papers. We ask that all group members be present. The tutor can only work on the parts written by group members who are present. In other words, parts of a document written by a group member not at the appointment cannot be covered. A group member must be present to get an appointment verification to give to an instructor.
Lab rules: The Writing Center will ask you to log in with your UIN at the front desk if you would like to use the Writing Lab. When possible, available tutors can help students in the lab with brief questions. Tutors who need computers to work with students for tutorials have priority use of the computers; in the event that a tutor must use a computer, you may have to log off and return at another time. In addition, we ask that students not eat at the writing lab. The lab is for currently enrolled students only. Please refrain from phone conversations when using the lab. See disruptive behavior for more information.
Misrepresentation: Appointments are for currently enrolled ODU students only. Writers who are not currently enrolled students may not use the WC. Due to limited space, the WC will ask university employees to use the library computers. The WC is not budgeted to work with the community at large. Students must present a University I.D. Also see
False Representation.
Multiple papers: The WC asks students to bring one paper to work on for each visit. Multiple papers cannot be addressed in one visit.
Plagiarism:
The WC expects students to offer writing that meets ethical standards, including those of the University Office of Academic Integrity. Plagiarized writing or work misrepresented as a students’ own will not be discussed in conference. The Writing Center cannot get involved in plagiarism disputes. Students must work with their professors and the Office of Academic Integrity in these cases.
Safety: The Writing Center reserves the right to end sessions and ask disruptive or disrespectful students to leave. If at any time a student is deemed unsafe, tutors will call Campus Security to report the student.
Services: Appointments are for currently enrolled ODU students only. Writers who are not currently enrolled students may not use the WC. Due to limited space, the WC will ask university employees to use the library computers. The WC is not budgeted to work with the community at large. Students must present a University I.D.
Space: The WC is for writing tutoring or the writing lab during open hours. The WC refrigerator, microwave, and coffee maker are for WC use only.