Gonzaga Writing Center FAQs

Tutors help students by:

• Focusing on the strengths and weaknesses in their writing as a whole, as opposed to the writing demonstrated in one specific writing project.
• Showing students how to find and correct their own errors, as opposed to correcting their errors for them.
• Advising students how to improve the following areas of their writing:
  • Thesis/controlling idea
  • Thesis support and development
  • Organization and logical transitions
  • Sentence structure and variety
  • Word choice, grammar, and punctuation
  • Citation and documentation
  • Document design

The short answer to this question is "No, not exactly." We can assist you better if you bring your draft to us several days before a writing project is due. Since we focus on two or three issues during the tutoring session, another session may be necessary to discuss everything in your writing project.

Although we help you to discover and correct errors, we are not a proofreading service. We work collaboratively with you to help you become a better editor of your own work.

Students, not tutors, are responsible for the writing project submitted to instructors.

During the synchronous tutoring session, you'll work one-on-one with a tutor; you'll read your writing project (perhaps aloud) and discuss parts of it with the tutor. The session will work best if you have some idea already about what parts of the writing project you'd like to discuss and why.

Tutoring sessions usually last 30 minutes. However, for longer writing projects, you might want to sign up for a 60- or 90-minute session.

The Writing Center is a busy place, with many writers wanting to secure appointments with tutors. Please respect this fact and only make appointments you can keep, and cancel appointments in advance if you are unable to fulfill your commitment. If you "no show" for two (2) or more sessions in a given academic term, you may be blocked from scheduling further appointments. We really do not want to block your access! So, please just be respectful and responsible to the tutors as well as the other students seeking assistance in the Writing Center. Thank you!

If you are more than five minutes late for an appointment, the session may be given to someone else. We appreciate your promptness.

If you need to cancel an appointment, you can do so on WC Online by selected your appointment box and clicking "Cancel This Appointment." You can also call the Writing Center at (509) 313-6610 or email us at writingcenter@zagmail.gonzaga.edu.

You can call the Writing Center at (509) 313-6610 to find out who is on duty or look at our schedule on WC Online.

We have a number of links to excellent sites in our Writing Resources page. By following those links you can find APA and MLA documentation styles, online dictionaries, grammar sites, and help with writing for multilingual students.

Some of the writing center sites, such as Purdue's Online Writing Center and Colorado State’s Writing@CSU, offer a range of general and discipline-specific resources.

Our tutors can conduct appointments synchronously online. To schedule an online appointment specify that you would like to meet over Zoom on the appointment intake form. Each tutor has a Zoom link in their bio, click on that a couple of minutes before your appointment to start your meeting.

Stop by the Writing Center in the Foley Center Library during our regular hours and talk to a tutor, or call (509) 313-6610. Our tutors can answer most questions for you.

For more information about the Writing Center, please contact Dr. John Eliason, Director of the Writing Center, at eliason@gonzaga.edu. Thank you.