THE WRITING CENTER

We would like to extend to you a personal invitation to visit SMU’s Writing Center when you need help with a writing—or reading—project of any kind. The Writing Center is a resource free to all members of the SMU community: undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff.

Whether you need help understanding a writing or reading assignment, getting started in the writing process, revising a draft in progress, or applying your teacher’s comments to subsequent assignments, we offer one-on-one tutorials that we hope will send you in the right direction. Of course, we can’t do everything in a thirty-minute session, nor will we violate SMU's Honor Code by providing you with ideas or editing your papers, but we can provide strategies that will help you learn how to “decipher” reading and writing assignments, generate your own ideas, revise and edit more efficiently and effectively, and benefit as fully as possible from your teacher’s suggestions. And if you think that you have a particular area of weakness, such as organization of paragraphs or use of the possessive, the Writing Center faculty members can teach you how to eliminate such problems, thus making you a more confident writer. So, as you can see, while we won’t work for you, we will definitely work with you!

We hope that this brief description of the Writing Center gives you some idea of our various services. We are here to help you, but you must take the first step by making an appointment. If you are working on an essay for a course, it is a good idea to schedule your tutorial well in advance of the due date, thus allowing yourself ample time for revision, a conference with your teacher—and perhaps even a follow-up appointment with us!

Writing Center appointments fill quickly. We recommend that you try to call at least 72 hours ahead of time to reserve a specific time for your half-hour tutorial. If you must cancel a Writing Center appointment, try to do so at least one day ahead of time so that we can give your appointment to another student. (If you make—but fail to show up for—a Writing Center appointment, we may not be able to schedule an appointment for you the next time you call.) To make a Writing Center appointment, please call 768-4253.

Yours sincerely,

Lee Gibson
Faculty Coordinator



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