How to Make an Appointment at the UCF Writing Center

## Introduction

This is a play-by-play of how to navigate through and attend a session at the University of Central Florida's writing center at the Orlando main campus.

## How to Attend a Session at the UCF Writing Center

There are three ways to procure a session at the UCF Writing Center. You can either book an appointment online through the writing center's website at uwc.cah.ucf.edu, come in as a "walk-in" and wait until a tutor is available to work with you (most of the time a tutor will be available in a relatively short period of time) or call the writing center phone number (407-823-2917) and the desk attendant will create an appointment for you based on your schedule. If you want to book an appointment ahead of time, the website will walk you through how to book a time slot and assist you in choosing a tutor that is on the clock during your preferred availability. This can be seen as a preliminary step in the process of attending a session.

The following links show a number of the steps needed to take in order to make an appointment at the center.

http://uwc.cah.ucf.edu/

http://uwc.cah.ucf.edu/schedule-a-consultation/

https://uwc-trac.cah.ucf.edu/TracWeb40/Default.html

Next, it's time to go the writing center itself. The center is located inside Colburn Hall; a building made of brick and that houses some of the departments in the College of Arts and Humanities. For reference, it is near the Burnett Honors College and across from the UCF Campus Bookstore. The writing center is on the first story and can be seen as soon as you walk through the passage-way that leads under the stairs which ascend through the direct center of the building and up to the second story. There are three passages that lead into the writing center. The main doors are at the front of the building and the words "University Writing Center" can be read. The second way to get inside is through double doors to the right. Once you've entered these doors, you can make an immediate right and you will be inside the main check-in area. The third is a hallway to the right of the main entrance, with a small side door that leads into the writing center as well.

Once inside, you can approach the front desk where someone will be able to help you. If you already booked an appointment you can let the desk attendant know or you can inform them that you do not have an appointment, but would like to see someone if that is the case. The employee will give you instructions on what to do next. You will be directed to one of the three computers in the check-in area and told to sign in with your UCF NID (a set of numbers and letters that identifies you as a student) and will be provided with a temporary password to utilize. Once you have signed in, you can take a seat in one of the three chairs that can be found next to the front door. Depending on the time you arrive, you may have to wait a few minutes to see someone. (The writing center operates on 45 minute blocks, so if you have a 9AM appointment and you arrive at 8:45, you won't be able to be seen until 9AM on the dot. Your session will subsequently last 45 minutes unless you decide that you have received enough information and would like to leave early).

On the hour, a writing center tutor will come to get you. Your name will be called and they will approach you and introduce themselves. The tutor will inform you that the two of you will cross through the hallway to the left and enter into the doors directly across from the check-in area. Once inside these doors, there will be a number of tables to sit at. This is the consultation area where tutoring takes place. The tutor will either pick a table to sit at or ask you to do so. Once you sit down, the session will begin. If you need to use a computer or print out a paper that you would like to work on, you can use the computers that are at the back of the room to do so and you will log in just as you did at the computers in the check-in area.

Once you have your specific assignment that you want to work on accessible, the tutor will begin to ask what you would like to accomplish and your specific objectives for the session. Sessions are flexible and are dictated by what the writer (you) want to personally gain and learn from the allotted 45 minutes. In a session, you can expect the tutor to guide you in the learning process with prompting questions engaging activities to get you involved such as asking you to write out ideas that would be beneficial to expand upon or suggesting that you cross out and make notes on your own paper for improvements on wording, grammar and sentence structure. You can receive help on a number of topics from personal resumes to an ENC 1101 discourse community assignment. The tutors can assist with any subject you may need help on.

Once you have received the information and assistance that you need (or the 45 minutes is up), the tutor will inform you of the passage of time and suggest making a follow-up appointment or ask if you would be interested in making one in the future. If you couldn't get to everything you wanted to work on, you can make a follow-up appointment through the online interface on your own time or you can ask the tutor to do so for you as the session is ending. Next, the tutor will guide you back across the hallway into the check-in area and ask that you sign out on one of the offered computers. You will sign out just as you signed in, but this time there will be an exit survey that asks a few questions. The questions are about how the session went, what you learned and if you believed that you received adequate help. The answers to these questions are used to improve the writing center's practices and are helpful in improving tutoring strategies. Once you have signed out you are free to exit from any of the doors connected to the check-in area.