Welcome to the Writing Center! Here, you can get personalized feedback and support on your writing from our friendly professional writing consultants. Our services are open to both undergrad and grad students at Baruch.
Click on a link below to jump to the relevant section:
Services
Across our services, professional consultants—dedicated teachers with many years of experience guiding undergraduate and graduate student writing—will help you develop your long term writing, editing, and revision skills. We offer the following services:
- In-person 1-to-1 sessions: Meet with a consultant on campus in Newman Vertical Campus (NVC) 8-185
- Online 1-to-1 sessions: Meet with a consultant via video, audio, or text-only chat through our online schedule
- Asynchronous Written or Video Feedback: Upload your draft to our online schedule and a consultant will send you written comments or a recorded video response via email
- Workshops and events: Build your academic and professional writing skills, learn from writing experts, and flex your creativity through our workshops and events
- Writing guides: Find writing guides on a range of writing skills, including thesis statements, citation, cover letters, organization, and grammar
Appointment policies
- Appointment limits: You can have up to two Writing Center sessions per week across all one-to-one services, but only one session per day. Workshops and events do not count towards your two sessions/week
- Attendance: If you will be late to your session, please contact us! If you are more than 10 minutes late, we will cancel your appointment and offer the slot to another student. If you know ahead of time that you can’t attend your session, please log in to cancel or contact us that another student can get help
- For more information on our policies, visit our FAQs page
Consultants are teachers, not editors, so they won’t directly proofread or re-write your work. However, they will happily help you develop and organize your thoughts, revise for clarity and style, identify and correct grammatical errors, and break down the writing process into manageable steps!
A typical consultation
The structure and focus of each consultation depends on your project and goals! However, 50-minute sessions are usually divided in the following way:
- Goal setting: You’ll spend the first 5-10 minutes of each session talking with your consultant about what you’re working on, where you are in the drafting process, and what you’re hoping to get out of the session. Based on this conversation, you’ll set goals for the session together.
- Main session: You’ll spend the majority of the session working towards those goals. You will write a lot—taking notes, brainstorming, revising, and drafting. Your consultant will help you learn and practice strategies for reading strategically, citing and responding to sources, developing arguments, meeting audience needs, and revising for clarity. There’s a lot of conversation, and plenty of time to answer questions along the way.
- Wrap up: As you approach the end, you’ll work with your consultant to write a session record, which describes what you learned, how you learned it, and how you can use it for future writing. You’ll receive this record by email, and you can also ask your consultant to send a copy to your instructor.
Sign up for a synchronous appointment
Sign up for an appointment through our online schedule. You can also use our flexible scheduling form to request recurring or extended appointments or a range of accommodations including assistive technology or accessible materials.
- Log into our online schedule using your CUNY login. If it’s your first time, create an account, click “Register,” and then log back in using the same credentials to view the schedule.
- Once logged in, click on available or white slots to sign up for a session. Check the labels on the left-hand side to make sure the consultant is available to meet in your preferred modality (in person or online). Once you find an opening, fill out the information in the appointment form popup and click “Save.”
- If no open slots match your schedule, you can add yourself to the waiting list, which will notify you about any openings. Click the “Waiting List: [Date]” link at the bottom right corner of the day’s schedule grid. You’ll receive an email or text notification if a matching spot opens up, and you can log in and reserve the appointment.
Sign up for asynchronous feedback
- To request asynchronous written or video feedback, click on “Schedules” in the top menu bar and select “Written Feedback.” Click on the next available group appointment and fill out the appointment form. Please note that you are signing up for a spot in our Written Feedback queue, not for a specific date or time. We respond to requests in the order they are received.
- Upload your paper as a Word document and include your assignment instructions, revision goals, questions, and deadlines. If your document is longer than 6 double-spaced pages, please identify a specific section you’d like the consultant to focus on.
- You will receive your feedback as an email attachment once it is completed, usually within about 72 hours. To view your feedback, open the document in MS Word on your computer (not your mobile device) and make sure that comments and “Track Changes” are visible. If the consultant replied by video, they will include the Zoom link and password in the introductory comment of the document.
Prepare for a one-to-one session
- Try to schedule your appointment so you can draft beforehand, and leave enough time following your session to revise. You’ll want to put into practice what you learned.
- Locate copies of your materials ahead of time, including the assignment prompt, any instructor feedback, and drafts or notes that you’ve start to write. You can visit the Writing Center at any stage in the writing process, so don’t worry if you don’t have a complete draft!
- Before your session, take some time to read through your writing. Identify what you feel are the strongest parts, along with a few goals or areas that you’d most like to work on.
- If you have specific questions about your professor’s assignment or expectations, ask! The more you can tell us about the goals for your writing, the better.
- For in-person sessions, come to the 8th floor of the Newman Vertical Campus (room 8-185, near the central elevators) about 5-10 minutes before the start. A staff member will check you in. Please print out two copies of your work and/or attach a digital version of your draft to the appointment by re-entering your appointment and clicking edit to add your document.
- For online sessions, log in to the online appointment schedule about 5-10 minutes before the start. Click on “My Appointments” on the top menu bar, select your appointment, and click the red “Start or Join Online Consultation” button. In the consultation window, cut and paste your document into the workspace on the left and wait for your consultant to join the session.
Other questions?
For other questions, check out our FAQs page.
