About Us
We work with undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff to improve their writing projects and skills through free one-on-one consultations, writing resources and workshops.
About Us
The University Writing Center serves everyone in the UofL community, including undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff. We can help you at any point in your writing process, from getting started with an idea, to working on a first draft, to revision and copyediting. We are not an editing service, but we can help you become a better writer. If it involves writing, we are happy to work with you.
The Writing Center by the numbers
hours of direct student and faculty support
Workshops
of surveyed writers said they would use the Writing Center again
Community Partners
Mission
At the Writing Center we provide one-on-one consultations, writing resources, in-class workshops and a comfortable place to write. Writing Center consultants can work with any piece of writing, whether for a specific course or for professional or personal development. We also welcome collaborative projects as well as multimedia projects. We are also a site for research on writing center theory and practice and are committed to being part of ongoing scholarly conversations about the teaching of writing.
The Writing Center is dedicated to being a safe, inclusive environment. We work to make the Writing Center a welcoming place where writers feel comfortable bringing the diverse range of perspectives found in the university community. We are also committed to accommodating all writers and all learning styles. We do not grade or evaluate the writing we see and we do not communicate what happens in a consultation to students’ instructors without the permission of the student.
Who we serve
We work with all members of the UofL community – undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff – to improve their writing projects and skills. We provide free, one-on-one consultations, writing resources, workshops and a comfortable place to write. Our consultants can work with any piece of writing, whether for a specific course or for professional or personal development.
Accessibility & accommodations
The Writing Center is committed to serving all writers in the UofL community. We work with writers of all abilities, experiences and learning styles, and we're happy to make accommodations to ensure everyone can benefit from our services.
If you need accommodations for your appointment or have questions about accessibility, please let us know when you schedule or contact us directly. Learn more about our accessibility services and available accommodations.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
While we do accept walk-in appointments, if you want to be sure to meet with a consultant, you need to make an appointment.
You can make appointments using our online scheduling system, calling 502-852-2173, or stopping by Ekstrom 132. To use our online scheduling system:
- Log in using your UofL user name and password.
- Use the menu to select from our three locations: Ekstrom Library, Health Sciences Campus or Virtual Writing Center.
- Select a white box, which indicates an available appointment.
- Provide as much information as possible about the reason for your appointment.
You may schedule up to three appointments per week during the academic year in the Ekstrom location. In the summer and at our HSC and VWC centers, you may schedule two appointments per week. If you make an appointment for a group paper, all members of the group must attend the appointment.
All consultations last 50 minutes and start at the top of the hour.
We understand if circumstances mean that you must cancel or be late for an appointment. In such a situation, please call us 502-852-2173 or send us an email at writing@louisville.edu and let us know. We ask that you do not contact your consultant individually.
Please note, if you are more than 10 minutes late for an appointment and we have not heard from you, we will offer your appointment time to someone who is waiting to meet with a consultant.
If you miss five appointments during a semester, you will not be able to make further appointments without talking with the director or associate director.
If you can't find an appointment when you want one because they're all booked, you can use the "waiting list" feature on our online scheduling system. On the schedule page, select the "WAITING LIST" link that is located under the day you are trying to make an appointment and fill out the form that pops up. Once you are on the list, if an appointment opens up, you will receive an email or text message notifying you that there is an opening. Please note that the waiting list is only a notification system to let you know that an appointment is available. You will still need to log into the scheduling system or call the University Writing Center to make an appointment. Appointments are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information on how to use the waitlist, watch our video.
You do not have to have any writing completed for in-person or virtual live chat appointments. Many writers make appointments at the beginning of a writing project for help getting started. Our consultants can help you with brainstorming and organizing ideas and give you a great start to your writing. You do need at least a partial draft for a virtual written feedback appointment.
At the University Writing Center, our goal is to help you improve your current writing project as well as offer advice that will help you improve your overall writing abilities. We don’t edit papers for you, but we do work with you to improve your writing skills.
In a typical in-person or virtual live video chat session, a consultant will begin by asking you about your project and any concerns you may have about the writing. If you are just starting an assignment or project, the consultant will help you develop ideas and think about organization. If you have a draft already, you and the consultant will read through the draft together. Typically we read the draft aloud, which helps you as a writer get a sense of the organization of both the draft and individual sentences. During the session, your consultant will continue to ask questions to help clarify what you are trying to accomplish in the draft and to indicate where the draft might need revision. Your consultant may also make suggestions about possible revisions but allow you to decide whether to make the changes in your draft. Near the end of a session, your consultant will take time to review with you what the two of you have covered during the session and make plans for how you will revise the draft after you leave the Writing Center.
We can help you most effectively during your University Writing Center session when we can address your concerns. If, before your appointment, you can make a list of some of the concerns about and goals for your writing project, that will help us respond to those concerns more effectively. Also, if you are wanting help with a course assignment, bring the prompt for the assignment and any other information or materials that are connected to it. If you have written a draft, please bring that as well. Please note that we are happy to print your draft for free when you come to the Writing Center. It is also fine to work from a digital file on your computer or flash drive if you prefer.
University Writing Center consultants can work with any piece of writing, whether for a specific course or for professional or personal development. We work with students from every department and college at UofL, from both campuses. While not experts on the content of every discipline, our consultants are able to help writers from across the university with issues of organization, audience, form, and usage and style. Our consultants also offer suggestions to help with writing process issues such as getting started and approaching revision.
Absolutely. We can work with you on any kind of writing. We can help you with job letters, resumes, personal statements, book projects, grant proposals, even love poems. If you are working on writing and a member of the UofL community, we can help you.
The University Writing Center is committed to accessibility as both a policy and a disposition. Many of the strategies we already use can be conducive to writers with disabilities, such as working with writers to understand assignment guidelines and instructor feedback and helping writers brainstorm. In addition, we are pleased to make additional accommodations for any writer who requests them.
Our consultants are graduate students from the UofL English Department. They have all had graduate course work in the theory and practice of teaching writing.
Absolutely. The Virtual Writing Center prioritizes distance education students. If you are unable to attend a face-to-face writing consultation, the Virtual Writing Center allows you to receive feedback from one of our consultants. Through the Virtual Writing Center, you can choose whether you would like to submit your draft and receive written feedback or meet with a consultant in a live video chat. The Virtual Writing Center is closed any time that the University of Louisville is closed, including semester breaks and holidays.
Yes. On our website you will also find handouts and videos about common student writing issues, advice about common writing questions and concerns, as well as links to other sites about writing. In the University Writing Center itself, we have copies of handouts and reference books.
The University Writing Center provides resources for faculty for their writing and for developing the writing skills of their students. Consultants at the Writing Center often work with faculty to develop and revise drafts of articles, grant applications and other other documents. The Writing Center also offers faculty consultations about teaching writing as well as handouts and videos about common student writing issues.
Faculty can also request a visit to a class from a member of Writing Center staff who will give a brief presentation about the services offered by the Writing Center.
Yes. If you want us to inform your instructor about your University Writing Center appointment, please let your consultant know during your appointment. We will send a copy of the appointment summary from your session to your instructor, We will only share information about a University Writing Center appointment with your instructor if you request that we do so.
No, we are not an editing service. We are, however, happy to work with you on strategies for revising and editing your draft. Our approach is to work with you to improve your draft and your overall writing skills. See above for a description of what happens during a typical appointment.
No, we are free to everyone in the UofL community.