Open 7 Days a Week, Including Some Evenings

To best serve our clients, the writing center is open 7 days a week (please check availability because it varies; we recommend planning ahead).

Why Visit the Writing Center?

As writing teacher Ben Raforth argues:

• "Writing isn’t easy and tutors can help [...]
• Tutors are able to discuss writing in a way that moves you forward. They create idea-rich conversations.
• Writing centers instill confidence that you are on the right track, or help you get there if you’re not.
• Writers need readers."

About the Writing Center

The writing center is a FREE service provided by the School of Humanities for the St. Edward's University community of currently enrolled students, faculty, and staff. The center is in Room 105 in Sorin Hall (#14 on the campus map).

Please plan ahead and make your appointments early, when you first get an assignment. We are often "booked solid" (or nearly so) by about the fifth or sixth week of each semester. Be proactive.

Appointment Policies 

• Appointments are for 30 minutes each and begin at the scheduled time.
• During the regular school year, most students may schedule up to two 30-minute appointments per week. During Summer semesters, students may schedule up to four 30-minute appointments per week. Capstone students may schedule up to two 60-minute appointments per week.
• No student may schedule more than 60 minutes of appointments on any one day.
• Please be on time for your appointment, and be sure to bring the assignment as well as your hard-copy draft.
• We cannot print your draft for you. Printing is available in the campus computer labs. The computer lab closest to the writing center is in Moody Hall, directly across from Sorin Hall.
• If you can't keep your appointment, please be courteous to others and cancel your appointment online. Two missed, uncancelled appointments will bar you from scheduling any further appointments for the rest of the semester.

Our Clients and Services

Current students, faculty and staff may come to the center for help with any writing project, including

• formal and informal essays, letters, and journals;
• mission course papers (e.g., Capstone and American Dilemmas);
• technical reports, memos, summaries, case studies, group reports, PowerPoint presentations, and other assignments;
• creating writing assignments and assessment instruments;
• graduate school and scholarship essays; and
• cover letters and resumes.

To help our clients become better writers, our instructors first focus on the big concerns, such as

• thesis/main idea;
• purpose and genre;
• content development--outlines, rough drafts, and revisions;
• introduction/conclusion;
• organization;
• transitions; and
• MLA and APA documentation and use of authoritative sources.

When necessary, we will also provide assistance with grammar, mechanics, and style.  However, we are not an editing or proofreading service. The writing center is a place of learning, connected to larger goals that the university has for its students. Thus, in addition to improving your project now, we want to help you become a better writer in the long run. 

As writing professor John Duffy puts it, "[T]o the extent that writing center conversations encourage participants to practice, in classroom and community settings, the virtues so strikingly absent from our present public discourse, we may say that writing centers contribute not only to individual character development but toward better forms of public argument, and thus to the common good."

How and Why do St. Edward's Students Use the Writing Center?

Watch the video to hear from students in their own words: