1. If you are unable to see an on-campus writing tutor or who feel more comfortable asking questions virtually can now submit papers electronically. You can work with a tutor to enhance writing skills. While we recognize that editing is an important stage of writing, we are not strictly a proofreading or editing service. Overall, we hope to help you gain confidence in their writing by providing feedback through the convenience of an online conversation.

2. Fill out Writing Smart registration form (click here) which asks the following:

• What is your name and student number?
• What is your phone number and email address?
• What is the course number and name?
• .When is the paper due?
• What is the assignment? Please provide details of what the professor is expecting students to do and what the goals of the assignment might be.
• What is the topic you have chosen to focus on?
• What are your concerns for this paper? For example:
  • Thesis statement
  • Logic
  • Organization
  • Coherence
  • Reference/Citations (APA, MLA, Chicago)
  • Grammar
    *Article use
    *Subject/verb agreement
    *Comma use
    *Other ___________________

3. Submit only one assignment per request.

4. Prepare the document in Microsoft Word and submit as an attachment.

5. A tutor will respond to your essay via an attached MS word file, usually, within 24 hours.

6. While we hope this tutoring experience is beneficial, we do recognize its limitations. Should we feel that we can not adequately benefit you in an e-mail tutoring setting, we may ask you to contact our Tutoring Center at (956) 364-4000 to schedule a face-to face tutorial session.

7. As in face to face tutorials, tutors will spend a maxium of 30 minutes on individual online tutoring sessions.

8. This service uses Microsoft Office 2000 software. To avoid compatibility issues, please indicate at the beginning of your paper if you are using an earlier application, such as, Office 97, so we can send your assignment back in the original e-mail instead of as an attachment.

Questions

Please provide us with any specific questions or areas of confusion that may help us understand your position. For example:

“Does the second sentence in the third paragraph make sense?”
“Am I using transition sentences appropriately?”
“My professor says that I have too many run-on sentences. How do I stop doing this?”
“Does my thesis statement work?”
“Am I staying on topic?”

Short Questions

If you have only a short question to ask that doesn’t require sending your whole paper, you can just email your question and the passage of your paper to which the question applies, and we will try to respond to you within 24 hours. Please include the intake questions pasted to the text of your email along with your responses.

Please submit your paper for online tutoring several days before the assignment is due. Generally, responses to online requests take one to two school days. You can check the tutor schedule to see when tutors are online. However, you may submit questions over the weekend or outside our regular hours.

If you submit a paper without identifying the problems you would like us to address, we may suggest that you bring in the paper for face-to-face tutoring, request that you ask a more specific question, or ask for a more focused passage to work with.

When you receive your paper from Writing SOS, the file will have been renamed to include SOS at the end of your original file name. Save this file and open it in Word, rather than opening the file from within your email program. The Comments should be visible when you open the file. If they are not, click on "View," and then "Markup." If you view your paper in "Page layout," the comments will be visible in the margins.

It is important to point out that the Online Tutoring is not an editing service. We do not fix errors. However, tutors will answer specific questions, work with you on the writing process (development of thesis, organization, task analysis), instruct in areas of difficulty (run-on sentences, pronouns) or help to diagnose areas of difficulty.

This is a pilot project and although we hope to reach as many TSTC-Harlingen students as possible, the number of hours we have available is limited. In addition, it will take a minimum of 24 hours for us to respond to your questions (you can expect a response within 3 school days). So, it is helpful to submit your essays and questions far in advance of the due date to ensure that we can exchange feedback and you can make changes to your work. In the event that we have too many requests, we will let you know within 24 hours so that you can access other resources.

Note:

Personal information is being collected to communicate with and assist students who seek help in developing their writing skills through the Writing Smart Online Support Project. It will not be used or disclosed for other purposes, unless permitted by The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Your personal information is protected by the Protection of Privacy provisions of The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. If you have any questions about the collection of your personal information contact the FIPPA/PHIA Coordinator’s Office (956-364-4000), Texas State Technical College-Harlingen.