How do I make an appointment?
To make a 40-minute appointment: call the Racer Writing Center at 809-2267 or use the online calendar on our website racerwritingcenter.murraystate.edu.
You may also schedule an appointment in person at the Center during our scheduled hours.
Although appointments are not required, we strongly recommend students make them in order to receive help when it is most beneficial. One 40-minute block per visit, please.
Walk-ins are accepted on a first come, first serve basis if we have consultants available.
Check the due date for your paper on your syllabus and think about when you might be ready to talk to a consultant about your paper. Then call or drop by to make an appointment!
What should I bring to a Writing Center Session?
The most important thing to bring to your tutorial is an openness to work on your writing! Other things that help make a tutorial successful are:
- The assignment sheet
- Any class notes or course texts that pertain to the assignment
- Any written work you have done so far
What happens in a typical Writing Center Session?
In a typical Writing Center Session (usually 40 minutes long), the consultant begins by asking you to fill out a form that asks for your instructor's name and class and where you can indicate if you want your professor to know you are attending Writing Center sessions. The consultant then will begin working with you and your paper. After you have read through the paper with the consultant once, the consultant will engage you in a conversation, helping you to see what is good about the paper, what is not as strong, and then helping you learn strategies to improve on those areas that need strengthening.
Is there a limit to the number of sessions I can schedule?
Yes, you may have one session per day and no more than two sessions per week. This is because we are only open for a limited number of hours and can offer only a limited number of sessions, so we need to limit the number of sessions writers can sign up for.
Who comes to the Writing Center?
One-to-one writing conferences are not just for students needing remediation, nor are they reserved for composition students. Writing conferences can benefit anyone. Writers can bring papers from courses in biology, political science, communications, and many other courses besides English. They can also come in to work on resumes, job applications, internship reports, or any other writing tasks they're working on.
Writers can bring any kind of writing projects: college writing papers, research papers, resumes, business letters, lab reports.
What services does the Writing Center offer?
The Writing Center consultants will consult you, one-on one, on any stage of the writing process, including:
- Analyzing and understanding an assignment
- Generating ideas
- Revising and editing a rough draft
- Polishing up a final draft
- Researching documentation
Writing Center consultants will work with you one-on-one to help you improve your writing skills, but there are some things we will not do:
- We will NOT proofread or edit a paper for you
- We will not venture a guess as to what grade a paper will receive
- We will not give you ideas or choose topics for you
I just have a quick question about a grammar or style, do I have to schedule a 40-minute appointment?
No. Use the Racer Writing Center Grammar Hotline. Call 809-GRMR (4767) or email msu.grammarhotline@murraystate.edu
Should the paper I bring to the Writing Center be saved in an electronic format?
You can bring an electronic version of your paper to the Writing Center, but it is not necessary. You can bring in a typed copy of your paper, a handwritten draft, or you can save your work to a flash drive or your email account.
Can I come by with a paper right before it is due for a consultant to "look over?"
Maybe, but a tutor cannot "fix" your paper for you before you turn it in. If you want a writing consultant to look over the final draft of your work to help you learn how to catch grammatical or copy editing errors, then we are happy to help.
What if I can't make my appointment?
Please call as soon as you know you won't make it. If you miss an appointment without giving us enough time to give your appointment to someone else, you risk losing your writing center privileges for the semester. Two missed appointments will result in a one-semester suspension.
