Our approach to writing and writing response emphasizes the use of writing to explore and develop ideas and the use of writing to communicate those ideas to readers. Writing Center consultants reflect to the writer their experience as readers of that writer's work. For example, consultants identify to the writer how they understand the central ideas of the written work, indicate any questions or confusions that arise as they read, share any associations they have with what they've read that the writer might explore. Consultants and students consider how changes in organization, style and mechanics can strengthen their work. Consultants offer students strategies for improving their writing based on their training and their own experience as writers.
Conferences are 25-minutes long, though students may sign up for two consecutive conferences when necessary (e.g., with papers that exceed 10 pages). Students can sign up for a maximum of two conferences per day.
Students who are unable to visit the Writing Center or who are more comfortable contacting us online can send questions via email or texts via our online conference service. To help us meet our 48-hour response-time goal, we ask writers to provide some information to consultants regarding the context for their writing (e.g., the course and professor), the assignment, the due date, and the kind of feedback they seek.
While online conferences lack some of the immediacy of face-to-face meetings, our staff works hard to reproduce online the "conversational feel" of face-to-face conferences.
Because of the power of group work to help students develop their ideas, UW Bothell faculty members frequently assign group projects. In those cases, writing consultants are available to meet with groups to address any of the writing issues that routinely arise—as well as some of the issues unique to collaborative work (e.g., editing multi-authored texts to create a coherent voice).
