About the Writing Center

To make an appointment, please call us at 518-442-4061 during our regular operating hours.

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Mission Statement

The mission of the Writing Center is to provide contexts and settings for conversations about writing and writing processes. While its core functions are pedagogical, including peer writing tutorials, workshops and presentations to university classes and groups, the Writing Center also offers support to students, faculty and staff engaged in a broad range of writing projects, and promotes activities and events that enhance UAlbany's writing culture. Our goal is to situate writing as a vital academic, professional and aesthetic activity, and to raise the levels of conversations about and engagement with writing practices.

The Writing Center assists UAlbany students, faculty and staff with their writing at any stage of their writing process. Tutors are available to work with writers on a wide range of texts including, but not limited to, academic essays, resumes, cover letters, lab reports, grad school application essays, poems, stories, and letters back home.

Undergraduate peer tutors and graduate Teaching Assistants assist writers by providing an informed perspective that allows writers to move towards articulating, analyzing and adapting specific writing practices. Equally important, the Writing Center provides a pedagogical setting for undergraduate and graduate tutors to gain experience and expertise in writing, research and teaching.

What We Do: Inside the Tutorial

Staff members in the Writing Center are committed to the art of teaching writing and promote the idea that becoming a better writer is a process that takes place over time. A tutor will attempt to best understand the writer’s situation and how the writer sees him/herself in relation to the project or assignment. Writing instruction is student-centered; tutors help students move toward articulating their specific needs and provide them with writing strategies and methods that will help them become better writers.

Working with the Writing Center is best done on an ongoing basis; tutors are trained to use tutorial time efficiently and to make decisions about which issues can and should be addressed within the framework of a given session, usually working with "global" issues (organization, logic, structure) first, then moving to "local" issues (sentence and word level problems); they engage writers, the text, and the composing process.

Writers work with tutors in one-to-one sessions, typically 30-60 minutes in length. Walk in appointments are possible; however, it is advisable to make appointments ahead of time especially if you want to work with the same tutor you worked with previously and/or if you have specific assignment deadlines. It is recommended that writers bring the assignment/prompt/question with them to the tutorial.

The Writing Center tutor does not proofread or simply correct grammatical errors. Writing Center tutors engage the whole writer and his/her writing process.

Writers get the most out of the Writing Center if they plan ahead and bring in drafts of texts in time to make revisions before the deadline. If students bring in work the day it is due, it is difficult for any real learning to take place. To get the most out of the Writing Center's resources, return visits and appointments made ahead of time are encouraged.

English as a Second Language

Our tutors are well-versed in the unique challenges that ESL (English as a Second Language) writers face. Writers can work with a tutor to clarify their understandings of course assignments and faculty feedback, work with tutors to develop and organize their writing, and work one-on-one with a tutor to improve their written English skills.

ESL students should be aware that checking grammar and copyediting for punctuation or usage errors are better left for a professional copyediting service.

In addition to our regular tutoring staff, the Writing Center is pleased to offer the specialized services of an ESL consultant, who assists students whose most pressing writing issue is fluency in the English Language.

ESL (English as a Second Language) Consultant Hours (9/5/07- 12/7/07):

Personal Statements/Resumes/Coverletters

Writing Center tutors can help writers polish their professional or career-related documents, including personal statements, resumes and cover letters. Tutors can provide resources, models and feedback.

Creative Writing

Writers working on creative pieces will find our tutors eager to give insightful feedback and suggestions, and happy to simply talk about ideas in process.

Academic Writing

Writing Center tutors can provide one-on-one feedback and discussions at any stage of the writing process, regardless of academic discipline. They are prepared to discuss issues of content, organization, and clarity, and have experience with writers working on course assignments, lab reports, research papers, theses and dissertations.