The Writing Center

• Thirty-minute Writing Center consultations are available on a walk-in basis.
• The hours of operation for Summer B 2008 are:

Mondays: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm Tuesdays: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm Wednesdays: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm Thursdays: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm             These hours are in effect on days classes are in session. The Writing Center is closed on Monday, May 26th for Memorial Day.
The Writing Center is located in Library 202 C. Thirty-minute sessions with qualified Writing Consultants are available on a walk-in basis. To prepare for your session, please bring the assignment guidelines and a printout of your essay with you to the Writing Center.
When you arrive at the Writing Center, sign in at the front desk and fill out the "Record of Student Progress" form located next to the sign-in sheet. The information you provide about the assignment and the area you wish to focus on in the tutorial will help the Writing Consultant tailor the session to your needs.
Writing Center consultants help students develop their writing skills through assistance with prewriting, writing, and revising strategies. Writing consultants also work with students to facilitate improvement in documentation format and mechanics.

Mission

The FGCU Writing Center assists student writers through free, accessible, learning-based writing consultations.  Our primary goals are to improve writers’ abilities to think independently, to write critically, and to learn and implement writing strategies that will assist them in producing successful college-level essays.
Consultants help writers with brainstorming, formulating a clear thesis, developing their ideas, and revising.  Writing Center sessions are designed to assist writers in improving their ability to revise independently.  Writing Consultants also help writers identify issues of style and mechanics; however, they do not edit or proofread. Writing Center sessions focus on fostering skills rather than on correcting errors.  After a thirty-minute session in which the writer and consultant work on one or two goals defined by the writer, students are expected to produce writing independently.

What We Do

Visit the Writing Center for a thirty-minute consultation at any stage in the writing process.  Sessions are available on a walk-in basis.  (No appointment is needed.)  Our goal is to provide skills that will help you produce college-level writing.  There are many areas in which we can help you improve your writing technique:

• We can assist you with prewriting if you are having difficulty beginning your essay.
• Once you have a completed draft, we can help you strengthen your thesis and topic sentences.
• We can also help you learn strategies for developing your ideas (adding examples and details).
• We can work with you to facilitate improvement in mechanics such as punctuation, word usage, and documentation.
• We can assist you with MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian documentation styles.

What We Expect

• Please bring assignment guidelines and a printout of your essay.
• Allow sufficient time to revise before the assignment is due.
• Sessions are available on a walk-in basis. (Final sessions begin thirty minutes before closing.) 
• If a writing consultant is not immediately available, sign in, fill out a “Record of Student Progress” form, and wait for a consultant.
• The writer is an active participant in the session. Our goal is to help you improve your overall skills (rather than merely working on one specific paper) by providing strategies and practice that will help you discover options and make choices you can build on independently. We are not a proofreading or editing service. Writers should proofread their papers before their sessions. We will, however, assist with proofreading and editing strategies that help you learn to recognize and correct grammatical errors.
• Writers who do not understand an assignment should speak with their professors prior to visiting the Writing Center. In the event that you arrive at a session without a clear understanding of the assignment in question, the writing consultant will recommend that you contact the professor immediately. 
• Writing consultants may offer suggestions for revision based on a professor’s comments, but they do not predict or explain the grade on a paper. Consultants will encourage writers to take questions regarding grades directly to their professors.

FGCU Writing Consultants are FGCU English faculty who teach Composition, Professional Writing, and Literature courses; graduate assistants who are pursuing Master of Arts degrees in English at FGCU; and senior-level English (and other) majors.