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Policies


  • Whom We Serve

    • Current students and faculty in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences (ECAS),
    • Laney Graduate School (LGS),
    • The Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing (SON), and
    • The Emory University Medical Imaging Program (MIP).

    We can also meet with writers from other schools/divisions if they are working on assignments for courses in ECAS, LGS, the SON, or the MIP. Because we have more demand than we are able to meet from students in ECAS, LGS, the SON, and the MIP (who provide our funding), we are not able to serve students from other schools/divisions.

    Consult this document if you are unsure of our ability to serve you. Additional Emory Writing Support by School offers other writing support services on campus.

    We serve any major.

    Though we indicate our tutors' majors on our People page, each tutor is trained to consult with you no matter what type of writing you might bring to the EWC. While some tutors may not be as familiar with the standards for writing in your discipline, they are all interested listeners who know a lot about writing generally, and can help you figure out how to best write to your audience and genre.

  • Inclusivity and Respect

    At the Emory Writing Center, we expect that all writers and tutors will be respectful of other students’ race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, citizenship status, religious affiliation, ability, and linguistic background. We ask that all people who come into the Writing Center space (both physical and virtual) are committed to actively checking their own biases and taking steps to continuously educate themselves about issues of discrimination.

    Tutors are trained to engage in antiracist pedagogy and writers should be open to conversations that interrogate the content of their writing. We ask that writers familiarize themselves with respectful ways to talk and write about race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, citizenship status, religious affiliation, ability, and linguistic diversity. In addition, we ask that all tutors and writers engage in the work of identifying and dismantling microaggressions. Here is a resource that may be helpful to review before coming to your appointment: Recognizing Microaggressions and the Messages They Send.

    Possible ramifications for violating this policy include, but are not limited to, the temporary or permanent suspension of your WCOnline account, a meeting with Emory Writing Center administration, or recourse taken at the University level in line with policies such as: the Equal Opportunity and Discriminatory Harassment Policy, the Standards of Conduct Policy, and the Sex and Gender-Based Harassment and Discrimination Policy. You can find the full text of these and other relevant campus-wide policies at the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance.

    If you are interested in what else the Emory Writing Center is doing to further inclusion, anti-racism, equity, and respect, please visit Our Commitment to Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion to learn about our commitments and action items.

  • Maximum of One Appointment Per Day and Two Appointments Per Week

    Writers are not allowed to have more than one appointment per day or two appointments per week. We consider a week to be Monday through Sunday, which means a new week begins on Monday. A walk-in appointment counts as one appointment.

    This policy is to ensure that we can serve all of the writers who want to schedule appointments and to prevent writers from relying too heavily on our services. One of our goals is to empower students to take greater ownership of their writing; we do not want to foster overdependence.

    Writers who disregard this policy will receive one written warning and then will be blocked from making appointments for the rest of the semester (and for the first month of the following semester if the offense occurs near the end of the semester).

  • Maximum Appointment Length of 45 Minutes

    Our regular tutoring appointments are 45 minutes in length for important reasons:

    • Longer appointments become unproductive as tutors and writers become tired and as writers become overwhelmed with the amount of material discussed.
    • We absolutely need 15 minutes between sessions for writers and tutors to complete important documents. We need these reports for accurate record keeping and to collect feedback from writers that enables us to improve our service.

    The 45 minute limit policy will be strictly enforced by all tutors. For longer projects that may benefit from more than 45 minutes of conferencing, we ask that writers schedule an additional appointment on a different date.

  • Reserving Appointments

    • Clients must register with WCOnline to make Emory Writing Center appointment reservations.
    • Clients must use their Emory email address to register with WCOnline.
    • Clients may have one WCOnline account only. Duplicate WCOnline accounts will be deactivated.

    Click here for a full list of WCOnline policies and procedures.

    Appointments may be reserved up to 14 days prior to the appointment date. We do not permit writers to make appointments more than 14 days in advance to reduce the amount of no-show appointments. If writers cannot make their scheduled appointments on time, we ask that they cancel their appointments as far in advance as possible.

  • Expectation for Coming Prepared and On Time

    Writers must be punctual. Writers will lose their scheduled appointments and be counted as no-shows if they arrive more than 15 minutes late. Writers should come prepared by bringing their drafts (printed hard copy or on a charged laptop or tablet), assignment instructions, any other relevant writing (e.g. notes, research), and ideas or a plan for what they want to work on.

  • No-Shows

    Writers are responsible for canceling their appointments via our online appointment system, WCOnline. If a writer fails to show up for a scheduled appointment and has not cancelled the appointment on WCOnline, they will be counted as a no-show.

    Writers who are more than 15 minutes late for an appointment will also be counted as no-shows. If a writer is a no-show two times, they will automatically be blocked from making appointments for the rest of the semester (and for the first month of the following semester if the offense occurs near the end of the semester).

    Writers who are blocked from making WCOnline appointments are also prohibited from having walk-in appointments. Many students who want appointments at the Writing Center cannot get them. Failing to show up for appointments without canceling them in a timely manner is discourteous and disrespectful to one's fellow students. This policy will therefore be strictly enforced.

  • Cancellations

    Writers are expected to cancel their appointments as far in advance as possible, so those appointments become available for other students. Writers must use WCOnline to cancel their appointments.

    WCOnline will not allow writers to cancel an appointment less than 3 hours before its scheduled start time. If a writer does not show for his/her appointment and fails to cancel that appointment 3 or more hours before the start time, that writer will be considered a no-show.

    See our no-show policy for more details.

  • Bring Your Writing and Assignment Instructions

    We encourage students to bring a hard copy of writing to work on and, prior to our transition to virtual tutoring, only permitted tutoring with hard copies. This is because we want to foster active participation in the tutorial and taking notes on hard copies can be helpful for tracking multiple drafts of a project. Furthermore, laptops can lead to distractions, and make it easy to do the sort of direct editing that goes against other EWC policies.

    That said, we want to ensure the Writing Center is accessible to all learning styles. Thus, we just ask you to bring the writing you want to work on (along with assignment instructions, notes, etc.) on a platform you are comfortable taking notes on. This can be a hard copy, laptop, or a tablet. Please make sure your device is charged (and/or bring the charger), and please do not bring writing assignments on phone screens (this is difficult to share and hard on the eyes!).

  • Policy against Composing, Proofreading, or Editing Students' Work

    In accordance with the Emory Honor Code, EWC tutors will not write work for other students. Writing includes composing, revising, proofreading, and editing. Instead, tutors work with writers to discuss strategies and resources.

    It is not a violation of academic integrity for a writer to generate ideas based on a conversation with a tutor or for a tutor to model revision or editing with a short passage.

  • Outside Contact Is Prohibited

    Writers are prohibited from contacting Emory Writing Center staff regarding Writing Center business outside of Emory Writing Center locations and hours. This includes electronic communications as well as in-person contact. Emory Writing Center locations include the Writing Center’s physical address, Emory Writing Center promotional event spaces, and Emory Writing Center sponsored activity spaces.

    Writers in need of assistance outside of regular Emory Writing Center locations and hours should email writingcenter@emory.edu and should not email or otherwise contact individual tutors.

    Writers who violate this policy will be suspended from using the Writing Center.

  • Take Home Exams

    We only work on take home exams when the writer provides written permission from the instructor granting permission to receive peer feedback.

    Any written permission (e.g. a note on the assignment prompt, a note on the syllabus, a note on the class Canvas page, an individual email, etc.) is sufficient.

  • Online Tutoring

    ***Updated April 2023***

    Click here for our online policies and procedures.

    Your Zoom meeting link can be found in your WCOnline  appointment window. After saving your reservation, select your appointment on the WCOnline schedule. The Existing Appointment window will open. The Zoom link for your session is in a box near the top of the Existing Appointment window.

    Appointment screen example

  • Opening Day Policy

    Our opening day is set one week after the add/drop/swap deadline each semester to allow our tutors to finalize their schedules.

  • Access and Accommodations

    Emory Writing Center strives to serve all students and will work to accommodate the access needs of all writers. Students with specific access requests should register for accommodations through the Department of Accessibility Services (DAS). To discuss your accommodation needs prior to making an appointment, please contact us at writingcenter@emory.edu.

  • Stay Home When You Are Sick

    If you are feeling sick, have tested positive for any illness, or have had a temperature within 24 hours of your appointment, but would still like to attend your tutor session, you have the option of switching from an in-person session to an online session.

    Please email the writing center (writingcenter@emory.edu) no less than 3 hours before your session is scheduled to begin, and we will do our best to change your appointment. Requests to change or cancel appointments less than 3 hours before sessions are scheduled to begin may be denied. Please see our cancellation policy for instructions on how to cancel appointments.

    The Emory Writing Center strongly encourages masks. If you do not have a mask, the Writing Center can provide one for you. Please keep in mind that masks do not prevent all illnesses, so if you feel ill, please stay home and meet us online.