Online Tutorials

The Writing Center offers an online alternative to our traditional face-to-face (f2f) tutorials. As with any f2f tutorial, we cannot “fix” grammatical errors in your paper, nor can we “rewrite” your paper for you. We are not a copyediting service. We are, however, here to help you through any and every stage of your individual writing process. We will be happy to intervene in your writing and use both your mistakes and your successes as teaching tools. For example, the first time that you make a particular error, we will assist you through the “fixing-it” process. If you make a similar error later in the paper, we’ll alert you to the fact that there’s an error there and tell you that it’s a similar mistake to a previous error, but we will not fix it for you.

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) AIM is a real time internet communication client. This means that you can chat with a tutor online with as much speed as you can type something and press enter. It works like a private chat room. This make Instant Messenger an excellent medium to address specific questions that you may have about your writing. For instance, you might be unsure whether to use a semicolon, colon, or a period. You might want a little more information about what, exactly, the Writing Center does. Maybe you’d like some assistance brainstorming or some feedback on the clarity of your ideas in a paper. Whatever your unique needs may be, you can catch us via AIM as an alternative to a f2f tutorial if scheduling an appointment is difficult for you.

The downside to AIM is than an AIM tutor cannot guarantee the ability to read through and analyze your entire paper. If the tutor is engaged in multiple instant message conversations at once, it would be a disservice to everyone involved for one tutor to attempt to administer more than one full tutorial at a time (in other words, concentrate on reading one person’s entire draft of a paper). Obviously, there are not set limits to how much an AIM tutor will be able to work with a writer, but we will attempt to help as much as possible for periods of time up to one hour.

Directions for using the AOL Instant Messenger Online Tutoring Service: To use AOL Instant Messenger, you must first download the necessary program. To do so, visit http://www.aim.com and follow the download instructions (first check to see if the computer you are using might already have a version of AIM). After setting up a username and password. You can then locate and “chat” with our online tutor, who will be online under the screenname AlbanyWrites (all one word) during the following hours:

Writing Center Instant Messenger Hours

ESL (English as a Second Language) Consultant Instant Messenger Hours