The Writing Center at 209C William Allen White Library

The following are our hours of operation:

9:00-5:00 Monday-Thursday and 7:00-9:00 Tuesday-Wednesday evenings

Clients may come (without appointment!) anytime during the hours of operation.

Services

The Writing Center offers the following services:

  • Writing Consultations. We provide students, faculty/staff, and community members with honest evaluations and suggestions for improving writing projects.
  • Writing Handouts. We offer a number of handouts on writing-related topics. Some are quick reviews for punctuation and common grammar errors.
  • Help for ESL students. In the ESU Writing Center we have a number of handbooks and special dictionaries for ESL students, including dictionaries of common American idioms.
  • The Grammar Hotline. This service offers via phone (620-341-5380) and email (writinglab@emporia.edu) quick answers to grammar and documentation questions.
  • Documentation assistance. We have many style manuals (MLA, APA, Turabian, etc.) for assisting writers with documenting researched writing projects.
  • Computer Lab. Students may use the computers in the center for Internet research, word processing, and self-paced computer-assisted grammar instruction
  • Quiet Study Space. Clients who need a quiet place to write may use the Writing Center's lobby area.

    • Our consultations last usually 15 to 30 minutes. If the center is not crowded (clients waiting), we allow students to have consultations up to one hour. Clients using the computers may work more than one hour if there are not others waiting for computer use.

    Reviews

    We are often asked, "Can you 'prove' that the Writing Center will help me?" Well the numbers collected at campuses across the country tell a dramatic story. At many schools, the average grade of students in beginning composition courses who visited the Writing Center at least twice was B+ as opposed to the average grade of C+ for those who did not visit the Writing Center. If that's not enough "proof" for you, here are some of the comments students have made about using the ESU Writing Center:

    • "The tutors at the Writing Center helped me with my paper, but they didn't make me feel stupid."
    • "This is such a great place. The tutor really listened to my concerns about grammar and showed me how I could find the errors I always miss."
    • "He didn't just tell me what was wrong; he helped me build on the good parts and make them better than they were."
    • "The girl helping me didn't just fix the paper for me (which is what I expected); she helped me learn so I wouldn't make the same mistakes again."
    • "The tutors speak the same language I do--they don't use fancy words to explain what they want me to do--so I actually understand what they mean!"
    • "I'm an international student, so I come here almost every day. They help me work on my English skills, not just my papers."