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Writing Center

A student support service available to students at Allen Community College is the Writing Center, a free tutoring service that helps students with the writing they are assigned in their college courses, as well as other kinds of writing they do.

How to Use the OWL

There are two major ways that you can use this service:

  1. To ask and receive answers to general writing questions, including questions about coming up with something to write about, drafting, writing thesis statements or paragraphs, mechanics, and grammar, or ...
  2. To request feedback regarding particular pieces of writing you are working on for class assignments.

Before using this service, there are a few things you should know:

  • You will receive a response from one of our tutors within 48 business hours of our receiving your request. Please note that "business hours" refers to days that school is in session. The 48 hours will not include weekends or days that classes are not in session. (For example, if we receive a draft to review on Friday at noon and school is in session the following week, we will send a reply back by the following Tuesday at noon--within 48 business hours of our receipt of your request.)
  • In order to provide adequate response to your requests, Writing Center tutors need information about the assignment, about your goals, and about the problems you are having with the assignment. The more information you can provide, the more we can help you.
  • The Writing Center tutors will not revise or correct drafts for you. We will comment upon areas that need improvement and suggest ways to improve those areas, and we may show you how to correct particular grammatical or mechanical problems, but we will not edit your work.

Now you're ready to send us your request! Please complete and send the following form, or if you prefer sending an e-mail, you may do so by attaching your writing project in Microsoft Word Rich Text format or copying it in the body of an e-mail. Send it to Writing Center Coordinator Bruce Symes at symes@allencc.edu. The same 48-hour response time will apply, and please include assignment details, your goals for the paper, and any particular problems you might be having with the task.

If you complete and send the form that follows, it is absolutely necessary that you include your email address (and that it's correct), so that we can send you a response. And remember, if you are sending a draft, the more details you can provide about the assignment and the work you've done so far, the more we can help you!

Click here for the Online Writing Lab Help Request Form