What To Expect at a Session

Your appointment at the Writing Center is a time to step back and examine your work with a fresh pair of eyes. Through collaborative support, tutors help you review and assess your projects, develop and reorganize content, refine or revise the written style, and decide how to direct your work after the session is over. 

Tutors can support you in any stage of the composing process, from brainstorming to final revisions.

• If you are at a brainstorming stage, expect a discussion about the assignment or context of the project and collaborative discussion about developing ideas and initial choices about structure and organization.
• If you have a draft or part of a draft written, expect the tutor to spend a few minutes reading it or to ask you to read it aloud with them.

What We Do

• Support you in any stage of the composing process.
• Engage you in dialogue about where and how you might improve your work.
• Collaborate with you to evaluate or revise the organization or structure of your ideas, regardless of project topic.
• Assist you in evaluating and improving focused aspects of your projects, i.e., argument, cohesion, conclusion, incorporation of sources.
• Identify patterns in grammar and usage and help you make choices about how to shape the style and voice of your pieces to meet your audience and context.

What We Don't Do

• Write the paper or the project for you or dictate what arguments or ideas to include.
• Proofread or edit projects without involving you in the process.
• Guarantee any grade on a project.
• Work with take-home-exam essays or exam-projects, unless you have explicit permission from your instructor to use the Writing Center services for the exam.

Writing Center Tutors are designated "responsible employees" under the College's Title IX policy. That means that, like other faculty and staff on campus, they are required to report to the Dartmouth Title IX Coordinator certain information that they learn while working as a tutor. College policy requires responsible employees to to share a disclosure of sexual assault, sexual or gender-based harassment, dating or domestic violence, or stalking including all the details known with the Title IX Coordinator at Dartmouth. 

To learn more about Title IX at Dartmouth and the differences between "responsible employees" and staff and other resources designated as "confidential," visit Dartmouth's Title IX Office website and its page on responsible employees.

Preparing appropriately for a meeting with a Writing Center tutor is key to getting the most out of your session. To avoid complications, make sure you have permission from your professor to seek the help of the Writing Center.

What to Bring

• A sense of what you want to accomplish in the session.
• A shareable copy of your draft, outline, or notes (if you've gotten this far).
• A copy of the prompt or assignment.
• Yourself! Please don't send a proxy or substitute to the meeting.

Tips for a Successful Session

• Be on time, even if you don't anticipate needing the full hour.
• If you're not used to talking about your writing projects' goals or the features of assignments, take a minute to write down the most important assignment features or goals for your project. 
• Be ready to be actively involved! You tutor will aim to give you a few different ways to participate in a dialogue; choose the ones that work best for you. Remember that you know your project, your process, and your writing situation better than your tutors does.