FAQ

We strongly encourage you to make an appointment to secure the day and time that works best for you. You can make an appointment by visiting WCOnline. You are able to schedule an appointment up to one minute before the start of an appointment, but we recommend scheduling your appointments in advance.

All sessions begin on the hour and last up to 45 minutes in length.

*Note: All appointment times are in Eastern Standard Time (EST).

We will offer in-person and online sessions for Fall 2022. If any aspect of our online scheduling system, appointment structure, or physical location raises questions for you or presents barriers to your learning, please contact the GWC Coordinator, Dr. Kelsie Endicott, by email at kjendicott@umes.edu, or by phone at (410) 621-2971 so that we can better support your needs and create a plan tailored to you.

A trained consultant will work with you on your paper or project. Your consultant will ask you what you want to focus on during your session, such as developing a thesis, organizing your ideas, etc. We work with writers at any stage of the writing process, so some writers choose to work with us before they have written anything in order to brainstorm ideas, while other writers choose to work with us on finished drafts. Our goal by the end of the session is to help build your confidence as a writer.

It’s always useful to have a copy of the prompt or assignment (if your professor gave you one) so that the consultant can better understand the project requirements. Because we encourage writers to work with us at any stage of the writing process, you should also have any ideas, notes, or drafts you’ve begun working on.

Please cancel your session at the Graduate Writing Center by visiting WCOnline with as much notice as possible. If you are more than 15 minutes late, you will forfeit your session. If you find that you are running a couple minutes late, please contact the GWC by phone at (410) 621-2971 or email Dr. Endicott at kjendicott@umes.edu.

You can have up to 1 appointment per day, and up to 3 appointments per week (Monday-Friday). Additionally, we encourage writers to discuss one writing assignment per session so that writers and consultants have time to thoroughly focus on the text.

Consultants are trained to work with you on papers in all disciplines. Additionally, we can work with you on a wide array of assignments such as lab reports, PowerPoint presentations, research papers, lesson plans, grant applications, CVs and resumes, scholarship applications, and much more.

While we can work with you on the majority of the writing you’re doing in your coursework, we are not able to help you with short-answer homework assignments and take-home exams unless you have explicit permission in writing from your instructor.

Yes, but you may need more than one 45-minute session to discuss the entire project. You can make multiple appointments for the same assignment, and you can schedule your appointments with the same consultant if you choose to.

Yes, but for group projects, we recommend that all group members attend the session simultaneously, if possible. Or, if you are working on your own portion of a group paper, you can schedule an individual session. Our sessions are highly interactive—if one group member is designated to bring a paper to the GWC, that writer may not be equipped to answer all of the questions that come up during the session.

If you would like your professor to know you had a session with the GWC, you can request a link to our online self-assessment form at the end of your session. This form allows you to summarize your session and explain your plans for revision. You will receive a copy of your answers in PDF form, which you can then submit to your professor.

Whenever the UMES campus is closed, the GWC will also be closed. We will cancel your appointment, and you will receive an automated cancellation email. Visit WC Online to schedule a new appointment.