The Writing Center supports faculty, staff, graduate students, and post docs.
Part of our mission is to create a campus-wide writing culture, and to that end, we dedicate time and resources to support faculty, post-docs, staff, and graduate students in their writing and writing instruction.
Writing
To support advanced, professional, and academic writers, we offer:
- Single or sequenced one-on-one tutoring sessions that work with you and your writing. (For graduate students and post docs, please see Info for Graduate Students and Post-Docs).
- Workshops on specific writing tasks for specific groups of writers. See more below.
- Dissertation Retreats in winter and summer.
Writing Instruction
CLASS VISITS. We send a Writing Center tutor to your classroom for a ten-to-fifteen minute presentation. The tutor will introduce your class to our Writing Center's philosophies, what to expect in a session, and how to make an appointment. To request a class visit, fill out this form.
IDEAS? If one of these options isn't right, please send us what you are thinking about. We are happy to collaborate.
What You Can Do
Request a class visit.
Encourage your students to visit but please avoid requiring we ask that instructors not require students to see a tutor or offering extra credit for visits. Tutoring works much better with self-motivated writers seeking support. Further, because we have a small staff, we do not have the capacity to guarantee that all students with required appointments can be seen. For these reasons, tutors do not sign notes or otherwise provide instructors with information about students who visit the Writing Center.
Include us in your syllabus. You can copy/paste this blurb:
The Writing Center is located in W. E. B. Du Bois Library and provides free support on any writing you do while at UMass, whether for a course or not. Trained tutors are available to work with you as you plan, draft, and revise your writing. Please visit www.umass.edu/writingcenter for hours and information about making appointments. If you have questions about the UMass Writing Center, please email @email or call 413-577-1293.
Contact
If you have questions about the UMass Writing Center, please email @email.