For Students

The UWC offers the following services free of charge to currently enrolled CSULB students:

  • 45-minute one-on-one writing appointments
  • Small-group tutorial sessions for 2-4 students from the same class working on the same assignment. NOTE: These sessions must be arranged in advance
  • Workshops on key writing concerns
  • Workshops on the GWAR Placement Exam (GPE)

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then you should visit the writing center

  • Have you received a writing assignment, but have no clue how to begin?
  • Do you have many ideas for an essay, but you’re not sure how to organize them?
  • Do you have a rough draft of an essay, but somehow it doesn’t sound quite like you want it to?
  • Are you nervous about taking the GWAR Placement Exam (GPE)?
  • Do you feel unsure of a letter of application you’ve written for graduate school?
  • Have you received a draft  back from an instructor with comments but you’re not sure what they mean or how to proceed?
  • Do you want to learn how to proofread or edit your paper effectively?
  • Do you want to become a better writer?

Tutors in the writing center can help you

  • Understand your purpose for writing
  • Generate ideas for writing assignments
  • Develop your ideas into an organized structure
  • Make your writing clear or easier to read
  • Identify common grammatical errors
  • Improve your proofreading & editing skills
  • Select and use appropriate formatting
  • Use writing reference resources
  • Develop your writing process

After you check in, your tutor will talk with you about your goals for the session and what you hope to accomplish by the end of the 45-minutes. Together, you will discuss how best to approach your writing assignment and meet your goals, be they to develop a strong argument or to make your writing clearer. The tutor will offer advice and support, but will not write or edit the paper for you. Rather, he/she/they will help you to become a better writer, one who can write clearly and effectively independently. By the end of the session, you will have developed a set of specific action items that you can implement to improve the quality of your paper. Before you leave, you will be asked to fill out a confidential session survey, in which you tell us what you learned and gained from the session and what you will accomplish moving forward. We are always happy to help you!

Tutors in the writing center are undergraduate and graduate students at CSULB who are interested in helping students become better writers. They are excellent writers themselves and many are preparing for careers in teaching. All of our tutors are well-trained and are required to maintain and update their skills through ongoing professional development.