Student FAQs
The Athens State Writing Center is not an “editing service,” in that we don’t just criticize and correct every error in your paper. Instead, we do is support you, the writer, by pointing out areas of concern—these may be with focus, organization or sentence structure. We show you how to identify errors and explain how to correct them, but we also provide resources and strategies that can help you improve your writing skills overall.
Unless your appointment is required by your professor, all sessions are confidential. We do not share your work, and our client records can only be accessed by the Writing Center. and of course, the conversation between you and your consultant is a private. the writing center is a safe space.
We send all our clients an email with a session summary after their appointment that may be provided to professors for proof of a completed session. However, it is up to the student to relay this email to the professor. We encourage students to reach out to professors on the exact way in which they are to submit their proof of a successfully completed session.
If you have an in-person appointment and the tutor has not arrived within 10 minutes of your scheduled time, please go the library circulation desk and ask a librarian to call your writing consultant.
First, confirm that you have scheduled a Zoom appointment. Go to https://athens.mywconline.com/ (which is the same place where you made the appointment). Click on your scheduled day and time, then click on the red “Start or Join Online Consultation” button. If you don’t see a red button, go to “What if I don’t see a Zoom link” FAQ (below). If you join the Zoom, but your tutor does not show within 10 minutes of the appointment start time, call the Writing Center at 256-216-6665, or x670 and email writing.center@athens.edu. If you don’t get an answer, call the Library Circulation desk at 256-216-6650.
Current policy states that a tutor has 48 hours from the time of the scheduled session to provide their feedback to the student. This means that when you schedule an e-tutoring appointment for Wednesday at 3p, you should receive a response by or before Friday at 3p. Please, also, check your email and your spam folders to ensure that our message was not overlooked. Keep in mind that we can only provide feedback to an e-tutoring appointment if a paper was submitted when the appointment was made. If you don’t receive a response within that 48-hour window, please email us immediately at writing.center@athens.edu or call the Center at 256-216-6665, or x670 during regular business hours Monday-Friday. Please note: we are available only by email on Saturday and Sunday.
Please note: if you have scheduled an “e-tutoring” appointment, it is not the same as an “online appointment”. See “e-tutoring” FAQ below.
If you have scheduled an online session, you will go back to the online scheduler, locate the day and time for your appointment. Click on your scheduled day and time, then click on the red “Start or Join Online Consultation” button. This will take you to the Zoom meeting where you will discuss your writing in real time. If you don’t see this button it means that you have scheduled an in-person or e-tutoring appointment. Call the Writing Center at 256-216-6665, or x670 or email writing.center@athens.edu so that we can update the appointment for the correct mode. For problems with e-tutoring, see “e-tutoring” FAQ below.
With an e-tutoring appointment, a student may submit to us a work-in-progress and receive feedback on the best next steps for that work. The feedback will come by way of email and will include comments as well as resources where applicable. Current policy states that a tutor has 48 hours from the time of the scheduled session to provide their feedback to the student. This means that when you schedule an e-tutoring appointment for Wednesday at 3p, you should receive a response by or before Friday at 3p. If you submit on Friday at 3p, you will receive a response by or before Sunday at 3p, etc. Please remember to upload the assignment guidelines and your paper so that our consultants may assist you.
The E-tutoring sessions provided by the Athens State Writing Center were created with the busy student in mind. While they do not take the place of a Zoom session or a classic in-person visit with one of our tutors, we stress that these visits can be beneficial to our students with busy work and family lives. The sessions are designed so that a student may submit work to us when they cannot find time in their often-hectic lives to meet any other ways. Current policy states that a tutor has 48 hours from the time of the scheduled session to provide their feedback to the student. Please remember to upload the assignment guidelines and your paper for the tutor to best assist you.
Visit our LibGuides page at https://libguides.athens.edu/thewritingcenter for more resources for every type of writing.
We are located inside the Kares Library on the campus of Athens State. Our office is on the first floor past the circulation desk.
Yes! The Writing Center can assist students with the basics of researching. We get you started by showing you how to get to the Kares Library page and access library databases. For more in-depth research questions and guidance in search terms and appropriate databases for specific subjects, we will refer you to one of our Kares librarians. You may also click here to find your librarian.
Faculty FAQs
Yes! Professors may send students for any types of writing assistance! We work with all types of writing.
Yes! Faculty may make appointments with any of our writing center tutors to work on their writing.
Yes! We help with getting students started on research before helping them set up an appointment to meet with a librarian for further research.
Yes! We allow students to call and e-mail for assistance. Depending on the type of assistance needed, we will recommend scheduling a normal appointment for more time to aid in the assignment.