Community Agreements and Policies

Writing Center Community Agreements

Anyone who uses the Center for Excellence in Writing and Communication’s services agrees to the following community agreements and policies.

  • Honor Diverse Experiences:  Writing Center tutors, UCI students, staff, and faculty must strive first to listen and empathize with everyone who utilizes the Writing Center. Share your perspectives and points of view, but reciprocate the same discernment and understanding you seek to be given to you. An inclusive mindset towards different perspectives and backgrounds is necessary to promote growth and acceptance. 
  • Collaborate with Curiosity: Writing inherently calls for vulnerability, and because of our personal connection we may have to writing, we may assume offense where intent is mostly sincere. The Writing Center promotes a social collaboration to revise assignments that are student-centered. However, constructive feedback may be met with some defensiveness. Let us first come from a place of curiosity and allow people to explain their perspectives before reacting to feedback that may feel invalidating, discrediting, or discriminatory .
  • Respect Professional Boundaries: Writing Center undergraduate peer tutors, graduate consultants, and writing specialists are employees but should be met with mutual respect and treated as professionals. It is inappropriate to ask for a writing consultant’s or peer’s contact information, or for consultants to provide this information.  Common courtesy and welcoming behaviors and manners are fundamental to an effective session, but exchanges should focus on writing and writing processes.
  • Uphold Confidentiality: It is not required nor expected to share personal information, but if participants choose to share, everyone involved will uphold confidentiality. Exceptions to this are in instances where an individual shares urgent information that presents danger to the person or to others).

* The following format and guidelines have been adapted from UMASS Boston’s Writing Center.

FAQs

Do I have to make an appointment? Can I see someone day-of without an appointment?

You are always welcome to come into the Writing Center, appointment or not. We have a relatively quiet study space where you can work on your writing and sign up for feedback when there is availability. We highly recommend making an appointment in advance, especially around midterms and finals, but appointments are not required.

How do I make an appointment?

Appointments are made through UCI ZotPASS (you can also download the app on your phone for ZotPASS). ZotPASS is a tutoring appointment system specifically designed to manage and track appointments for university-level tutoring on the UCI campus. In addition to providing available sessions, whether in person or virtually (remotely) with our professional tutoring staff and peer tutors, ZotPASS also offers email and push notification reminders.

You don’t need to register for anything extra to use ZotPASS; just enter your UCI email for the web browser to receive a link to access the system or use the app for UCI’s single-sign on system.

What kind of appointment should I make?

For undergraduate students, we currently have two types of appointments available: Writing Specialists/Consultants (professional staff) and undergraduate writing peer tutors. Due to the transition to the new appointment system, we have temporarily paused our asynchronous consultations service and will relaunch asynchronous writing feedback in the near future. Writing Specialists/Consultants and undergraduate writing peer tutors offer in-person (at Science Library 193 and satellite locations) and virtual (remote) appointments. Both kinds of consultations can provide support and feedback about overall writing strategies, general editing, and research strategies.

For graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, we offer appointments with our Graduate Writing Consultants. We also offer regular group writing support, workshops, and bootcamps/retreats for graduate students. The best way to view our upcoming group writing support meeting schedule is via Campus Groups. Once you’ve logged in, search for the CEWC/Writing Center’s events (they are visible to all UCI grad students and postdocs). Group writing support events may require prior registration. Please keep an eye out on Campus Groups and for emails from the Graduate and Postdoctoral Scholar Resource Center advertising our upcoming events.

What happens if I am running late to an appointment?

If you are going to be 10 or fewer minutes late to an appointment, please reach out to let us know you are going to be late but are still attending your appointment. If you need to cancel or reschedule, we suggest you call the front desk or go to ZotPASS to do so.

Reach out via phone at (949)-436-8060 or email at writing-center@uci.edu.