Welcome to the Writing Center! Here, you can receive personalized feedback and support on your writing from our professional consultants. Our services are open to all undergraduate and graduate students who are currently enrolled in a degree-granting program at Baruch.
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Our services
We invite you to watch this video overview of the Writing Center’s 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:
One-to-one sessions (synchronous):
- In-person: Our 50-minute in-person consultations take place Monday-Friday in NVC 8-185. During a consultation, you’ll work one-to-one with a writing consultant to brainstorm, draft, or revise your writing.
- Online: Our 50-minute online consultations allow you to meet in real time with one of our professional writing consultants and make changes in a collaborative online workspace. You can meet using video, audio, or text-only chat.
Written and video feedback (asynchronous): If you aren’t able to meet in real time with a consultant, you can still get feedback on your writing via email. Upload your draft, list 2-3 things you want feedback on, and one of our consultants will send you comments via Track Changes in MS Word.
Workshops: If you’re interested in practicing a specific academic or professional writing skill, register for an interactive 75-minute online workshop through our Events calendar.
Writing guides: Find guides on a range of writing skills, including thesis statements, citation, cover letters, organization, and grammar.
Request accommodations or recurring sessions
- If you need accommodations to fully participate in a Writing Center session, please fill out our accommodations form
- If you are working on a long-term project like a capstone or thesis, you can request recurring or extended sessions
Our policies
- 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!
- You can have up to two Writing Center sessions per week across all one-to-one services (including online sessions, in-person sessions, and Written Feedback), but only one session per day.
- You can attend as many workshops as you’d like! Workshops do not count towards your two sessions/week.
- You are expected to arrive on time and work actively throughout your session. If you will be late to your session, please email us at writing.center@baruch.cuny.edu or call (646) 312-4012. We will hold your appointment for 10 minutes, but if you are more than 10 minutes late, we will cancel your appointment and offer the slot to another student.
- If you know you can’t attend your session, please log in to the scheduler and cancel your appointment or email us at writing.center@baruch.cuny.edu or call (646) 312-4012 so that another student can get help.
- For more information on our policies, visit our FAQs page.
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.
Signing up for an appointment
You can sign up for all one-to-one services through our online scheduler, accessible at https://bc.mywconline.com or by clicking “Schedule an Appointment” from the top menu on this website. If it’s your first time, you’ll be prompted to create an account. Complete the requested fields, click “Register,” and then log back in using the same credentials to view the schedule.
Some consultants are available in-person only, while others are available online only. Check the labels on the left-hand side of the main schedule or narrow your search by meeting mode to see who is available to meet in-person vs. online. You can schedule appointments for up to two weeks in advance.
If no open slots match your schedule, you can add yourself to the waiting list, which will notify you about any openings. We think it’s easiest to use the waiting list in calendar view (where you see the whole week at once). If you are in the search view, you can return to the calendar view by clicking on the small “View the calendar display” text below the appointment search box.
From the calendar view, click the “Waiting List: [Date]” link at the bottom right corner of the day’s schedule grid. In the pop-up window, you can select specific consultants or time periods you’d like to be notified about. You’ll receive an email or text notification if a spot opens up, and you can log in and reserve the appointment.
Scheduling an in-person session
- To schedule an in-person session, find an opening that matches your schedule. In calendar view, click on any available (white) slot. In search view, search for an appointment that matches your preferred time and mode.
- Once you find an opening, fill out the appointment form, answer the questions, and save the appointment. Your saved appointment will appear in the “My Appointments” dropdown on the top menu bar.
- To arrive for your in-person appointment, 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. If you can, please bring two copies of your draft!
Scheduling an online session
- To schedule an online session, find an opening that matches your schedule. In calendar view, click on any available (white) slot. In search view, search for an appointment that matches your preferred time and mode.
- Once you find an opening, fill out the appointment form, answer the questions, and save the appointment. Your saved appointment will appear in the “My Appointments” dropdown on the top menu bar.
- All online Writing Center sessions take place through our online schedule (unless you have explicitly arranged otherwise with Writing Center staff). To access your online appointment, 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. If you have any issues connecting your camera or microphone, check our troubleshooting guide for step-by-step assistance.
Requesting written and video feedback
- To request Written 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.
- Make sure that you 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 hour. 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. You can also access your completed feedback through the online scheduler by logging back into your Written Feedback appointment and scrolling down to the “Attached File” section. If the consultant replied by video, they will include the Zoom link and password in the introductory comment of the document.
Preparing 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.
- For in-person sessions, 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 on a few minutes early to make sure that you have internet access and that your camera and microphone are enabled (if you’re meeting by video or audio). If you have trouble getting connected, check our troubleshooting guide for help.
- 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.
