UWC Policies & Procedures

Our Philosophy

University Writing Center consultations are designed to teach strategies and skills that apply to current and future writing projects. The goal isn’t to fix your paper for you—it’s to show you some ways you can revise your writing so you can be successful on your own even after you leave the Writing Center.

Policies and Procedures

Face-to-Face Consultations

We’re happy to offer face-to-face writing consultations this semester. If you have a face-to-face writing consultation, we expect the following:

Please bring a laptop or tablet and have a digital copy of your writing ready at the start of the consultation.
If you are feeling sick, please reschedule your appointment, or contact our office about making an online appointment instead.

Using UWC Services

The Writing Center consults with active students, faculty, and staff from the UCF community on any writing projects or assignments. For more information about what happens during a consultation, please see the How a Consultation Works page.

If you are enrolled in a course at another institution, then you must use that institution’s writing center services.

Alumni are permitted a maximum of 6 consultations on career-related documents such as resumes, personal statements, or test preparation, but not coursework from other institutions or creative or other personal writing.

Checking In

Visitors to the Writing Center should check in 5-15 minutes before the appointment time. For online sessions, check your UCF.edu email for a message with the Zoom link for the session. If you arrive more than 15 minutes late, your appointment may be given to another writer.

Appointments and Drop-ins

We recommend that you make an appointment to guarantee a meeting with a tutor. You can make an appointment through the TracCloud scheduler, or call us at (407) 823-2197. We welcome drop-in writers, but drop-ins can only be seen if we do not already have an appointment scheduled or if appointments do not show within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.

For information about our online drop-in availability, please call our office at (407) 823-2197 during our operating hours.

To make our services available to all students, we limit consultations (which includes both scheduled appointments and walk-ins) to once per day and up to three every seven days.

If you cannot attend your appointment, please cancel it via our online TracCloud scheduler or by telephone at least 2 hours beforehand to make your time available to others. After 3 missed appointments, you will only be able to visit as a drop-in for the rest of the semester.

Proof of Consultation

During your consultation, your consultant will record notes of the session, then send a copy to your UCF.edu e-mail address at the end of your session. This email serves as your official record of consultation. UWC staff will not sign or otherwise complete any other forms to document your visit.

Small Group Consultations

For ALL sessions (face-to-face and online)

Group members should designate a team leader who will schedule the appointment at the Writing Center. When making the appointment, the team leader should note that the consultation will be a group appointment.
All members of the group should attend the session. Sending one member of the group to have a tutor “look over the paper” doesn’t facilitate learning for anyone in the group. In order to learn, all members of the group must be present.
Groups should be no more than three to four students. Our space can only accommodate five people at a table (4 writers + 1 tutor).
Group papers or projects can be a large undertaking. Because consultations are only 45 minutes, it is best for the group members to identify segments of the project that they may want to focus on during the consultation.
There may be no more than one appointment per group per day, and no more than three appointments in a seven day period.

For ONLINE groups, follow these additional steps:

After making an appointment for an online consultation, the group leader must forward the log-on instructions and Zoom meeting room link (which is sent to the group leader) to each member of the group. Zoom should be functional on every writer’s computer before we can hold online group consultations.
To maximize the time to discuss your writing, please be sure that all members of the group are in the Zoom room at the start of the appointment hour. At the beginning of the consultation, the consultant will pull everyone into a breakout room and will ask for your NIDs so that we can log each writer into our system.
Online appointments are limited and often book up a week in advance. Students are encouraged not to wait until the last minute to schedule appointments.

Tutoring in Writing in English

The University Writing Center actively recruits multilingual tutors, who reflect the language diversity at UCF. Proficiency in a language other than English can be especially helpful during consulting, allowing writer and tutor to switch back and forth from one language to another.

While multilingualism is valued, proficiency in languages other than English is not a requirement of tutors working in the Writing Center. Typically, the Writing Center works with writing in English, which is the focus of tutor education and training at UCF. Some tutors may be able to assist with writing in other languages, but we cannot guarantee that a tutor proficient in a particular language will be available.

Editing

The UWC will not proofread and edit for you. Instead, if you need this type of assistance, a tutor will help you to learn some skills and strategies to proofread and edit more effectively for yourself. If you are a graduate student who needs assistance with Electronic Thesis & Dissertation (ETD) formatting, please consult the ETD office.

Academic Integrity

Writers are responsible for knowing and following UCF’s rules of conduct, including those concerning academic integrity. In particular, writers are expected to avoid plagiarism and misuse of sources. Any writing you bring to a Writing Center consultation must be your own.

Behavior

The University Writing Center reserves the right to refuse service and/or usage of the facility to any visitor—whether in-person or online—exhibiting signs of violence, aggression, or rudeness. Disruptive visitors will be asked to leave immediately.