Frequently Asked Questions

To make a Writing Center appointment yourself at any time, you can go to our schedule login page to create an account and make an appointment. From our website you can also click the blue "Appointments" button or just paste the following address into your browser: https://csusb.mywconline.com.

Note that accounts in our scheduling system aren't pre-made or linked to your MyCoyote login. You'll receive confirmation and reminder emails of your appointments, so we encourage you to use the email you're most likely to check.

Once you have an account and have logged in, we suggest you choose the "calendar view" option to view the schedule and select an appointment time that is best for you. If you have questions or experience any difficulties, please reach out to us.

We are always happy to work with you to set up the appointment by phone, in person, or by Zoom:

• Come in person to the Watson College of Education building, third floor, room 310.
• Give us a call by phone at 909-537-5232.
• Drop in to our reception Zoom (during business hours):
  • Zoom Link: https://csusb.zoom.us/j/336834754
  • Zoom Meeting ID: 336-834-754

Yes! We offer two kinds of online appointments: Email and Zoom

In email consultations, you make an appointment and upload your papers to the “Writing Consultation via Email” schedule. In 2 business days, you will get an email with your paper and feedback attached. This option is not available to first year students. 

Zoom consultations are video conferencing sessions that allow for a similar conversation and collaboration that is so important to in-person sessions. Currently, this option is only available to Graduate students in the Graduate Writing Center. 

Please visit our online tutoring information page for more details.

In the interest of efficiency and maximizing appointment availability, all writers are able to make two appointments each week in advance and to work with us an additional two times on a drop-in basis. If you have multiple assignments due or just want to work with us more often, please reach out to the Director, Nathan Jones (njones@csusb.edu). There is not a maximum number of appointments writers can come each semester and many students set up recurring appointments, particularly as they work on regularly scheduled assignments or large/extensive projects like Honors' projects, thesis, dissertations, etc.

Yes! Just like writing consultations in English, we also offer writing consultations in Spanish. We will work with you on class projects in Spanish, like essays, presentations, brainstorming, and citation. We will also work with you on personal writing projects in Spanish, like resumes, statements of purpose and more. To find a tutor for Spanish writing projects, select “escritura en español” under the “Limit by appt. type or topic:” dropdown menu. From there, you will see tutors who can work with you on writing in both Spanish and English.

We are happy to work with grammar in a writing consultation. While we do not fix your grammar for you, we will point out places in your writing where things like comma issues occur, why it is an issue, how to identify it, how to fix it, and where to locate additional grammar resources. As we read your paper with you, we will collaborate on ways to make changes to your writing.

If you do not understand your assignment, you are welcome to bring it to the Writing Centers and a consultant will collaborate with you to decipher the prompt, brainstorm ideas, and make a plan for writing. We can also work with you to develop questions about the assignment to ask your professor.  

Please bring any materials related to your writing project. These materials might include: a print or digital copy or your writing project, the writing prompt, books or articles, notes from class, or notes from your professor.

All writers of all language experience are welcome at the Writing Centers! All of our consultants successfully work with multilingual writers, and many of us are multilingual ourselves, but we do also seek to have multilingual consultants available who have an academic background in linguistics. These consultants are prepared to work with multilingual writers aided by a heightened metalinguistic awareness and additional tools of understanding and analysis enabled by their academic training in linguistics, and all of our consultants work collaboratively with all writers and prioritize furthering the writers' own goals for their academic success and writing development. All writers are welcome to reach out to the Director, Nathan Jones (njones@csusb.edu), to discuss their concerns and/or work to discern which of our consultants might be a good fit for you.

Yes! You do not have to have anything written yet to have a productive writing consultation. We can help you decipher the prompt, discuss possible topics, narrow your focus, brainstorm, and help you decide where to begin. Having a conversation and bouncing ideas around with a consultant can take some of the difficulties out of starting a writing project.

Yes, we can work with you on any writing from any class, as well as resumes, scholarship letters, emails, etc. Our consultants are from various majors. While your consultant may not share your major, all consultants are trained as experienced readers. We can support you as you focus your ideas, address the prompt, integrate sources, and respond to your project for any class.

We do offer group appointments. Group writing consultations are very useful when working on group projects, including group presentations and group papers. We can collaborate with your group to integrate your ideas, discuss issues of concern, brainstorm, and facilitate effective group communication to make progress on your goals. It is best to have all group members present and participating, but we understand that scheduling constraints may make it difficult for all members to be present. If most of a group is present and consultants and group members have questions about segments written by a group member who isn't present, we'll work with present members to encourage them to take notes and develop questions that they can later use in their discussions with the writer.

One member can book the time for the group just like you would an individual session, but then you should reach out to let us know the appointment is for a group. We will want to make sure your writing consultant is prepared to host a group and that everyone in the group has an account with us so we can get everyone participating included on the appointment record. This will make it possible for us to send a report for each participant (per your choice) and ensure our data captures each participant for our records/program assessment. We recommend booking an hour-long appointment for group projects, and if you are working on a long/complex project with lots of group members, consider reaching out to us about further extending the length of the appointment.

All writers can benefit from collaboration. By collaborating with our writing consultants, for example, we can work to identify your writing strengths, give feedback on your writing projects, brainstorm, and create an outline before you write. We can also give advice on how you can integrate sources, cite and format your paper, further develop your ideas, and strengthen your arguments.

If you know you will be significantly late for an appointment, you can go online and cancel your appointment or move your appointment to a time that is better for you. You are also welcome to call the Writing Center at (909) 537-5232 as soon as you can, and we will do our best to accommodate you.

If you haven't arrived within 5 minutes of the start of an in-person appointment or within 10 minutes of the start of a Zoom appointment, your appointment will be recorded as "missed" and if another writer is waiting for a drop-in appointment, we'll go ahead and work with them to maximize the efficiency of our time. You can miss two appointments each semester with no consequences, but after missing a third appointment, your ability to book new appointments via the scheduling system will be deactivated. You are still welcome to work with us on a drop-in basis. If your account is deactivated and you'd like to be able to make appointments in advance again, we request that you reach out to the Director, Nathan Jones (njones@csusb.edu), to ensure you're receiving our confirmation and reminder emails and to see if we can do anything else to ensure you're able to make it to your appointments. We reset the count each semester and we never report to faculty about missed appointments. We also reset the count of missed appointments at the start of each semester. We've established this policy in the interest of maintaining the efficiency of the center and to maximize available appointment time.

When you make an appointment, the appointment box has a “Report to Professor?” question. Select “yes.” If you forget to select yes or change your mind, ask your consultant to change it when your session begins. Later, your professor will receive an email indicating you had a Writing Center consultation. These emails go out a few times during the term. If you have further questions, please contact us at (909) 537-5232.

In addition to making appointments, you can try to get a consultation as a walk-in anytime, even if there are no appointments available. For example, if another student does not show up for their appointment, you have the opportunity to work with a consultant at that time. Walk-in consultations are available on a first-come, first-served basis. To be seen as a walk-in, please come to the Writing Center in CE-310 and speak to our receptionist. We also offer email and Zoom appointments.

The Writing Center and The Graduate Writing Center are located in the College of Education, 3rd floor, room CE 310.

If you cannot keep your appointment, you can log in to our appointment scheduling system and cancel your appointment at any time. You can also reach out to us during business hours to cancel or reschedule by dropping by in person, calling by phone, or connecting with us via Zoom:

• Come in person to the Watson College of Education building, third floor, room 310.
• Give us a call by phone at 909-537-5232.
• Drop in to our reception Zoom (during business hours):
  • Zoom Link: https://csusb.zoom.us/j/336834754
  • Zoom Meeting ID: 336-834-754