The Writing Center provides a place for all University of Pittsburgh affiliates (undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff) to come to work on their writing. The Center is staffed by both faculty consultants and peer tutors who have been trained to help others with their writing. The services are free to all University of Pittsburgh affiliates.
- What can I work on at the Writing Center?
At the Writing Center, you can work on any piece of writing. Our consultants are prepared to work with you on:
- Essays for classes;
- Creative writing;
- Personal statements and resumes;
- Emails and other professional communications;
- Multimodal and digital texts;
- Personal writing;
- Text messages, social media posts, and online writing; and
- Anything else that you can compose!
- Do I need to have a complete draft to visit the Writing Center?
It isn't necessary to have a complete draft to visit the Writing Center. At the Writing Center, you can make an appointment at any stage of the writing process! You can visit the Writing Center to work on anything related to writing, like:
- Developing an approach
- Brainstorming an idea
- Outlining your ideas
- Audience consideration
- Understanding an assignment
- Discussing strategies
- Guided drafting
- First draft review and feedback
- Understanding faculty or peer review feedback
- Implementing feedback suggestions
- Revision strategies
- Grammar and syntax questions
- And at every point in between!
You can consult with a writing consultant at the Writing Center for support and consideration at any stage of the writing process!
- How do I prepare for a Writing Center consultation?
The best preparation is to consider what you want to get out of your time at the Writing Center. Since we will have limited time together, what are your priorities? Read over your draft or your assignment. What questions do you have?
Proofread your writing so that the consultant knows that any errors that are left are those that you might need to talk about in the session.
Remember that the Writing Center consultant you work with won’t be able to look at every sentence of your project. If your project is more than four or five pages, please identify the pages that you want to focus on in this session.
You may want to consult your assignment during the session, so be sure to bring it with you. If you are writing about a text, you should bring that as well.
If your teacher has marked some needed corrections on your writing, try to make the corrections before you come to the session. That will give you and your consultant a good sense of what you might need to talk about further.
Plan to take notes while you talk to your consultant about your work. You may have some great ideas during that conversation, and you don't want to have to rely on just your memory.
Remember that your Writing Center appointment is just for you; you must be present at the session in order to receive help with your writing.
- How do I make an appointment?
We use an online scheduler called WC-Online. If it is your first time making an appointment, you need to make an account.
- Visit https://pitt.mywconline.com
- If it is your first visit to the Writing Center, click Register for an account
- Once registered, return to https://pitt.mywconline.com to login
- Enter your username and password to access the online scheduler
- Open slots are indicated by a white box
- Choose the time and consultant that you prefer. To learn more about the consultant, hover over their name to read a brief bio
- Click the box and enter the requested information into the online form
- Click "Create Appointment"
We are part of the University of Pittsburgh's Composition program.