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Writing Center

A Message from Dr. DePeter, Director of the Writing Center

The Writing Center is a free tutoring service for all Salem College students: traditional, day students, and continuing studies. The Center is staffed by your peers—students in many areas of study who have experience writing papers at the college level. Their goal is to help you with your writing—in any class, and at any stage of the writing process, from the early stages of brainstorming to the latter stages of copy-editing.

Bringing your work to the Writing Center is not a sign that you are a bad or remedial writer; it simply means that you take your writing seriously, and you want to take advantage of having someone else read and listen to your writing—someone who is objective, whose job is not to grade or criticize your work, but to help you develop your ideas and make substantive revisions.

Tutoring services are available on a walk-in basis. No appointment is necessary. Tutors can assist you with formal essays, informal writings, research, reports and bibliographies, as well as stories, poems, and other creative assignments. We will serve as your audience, and try to help you figure out what needs work, and what strategies might help you achieve your goals as a writer. Simply bring the paper on which you are working (even if it is only a rough draft or an outline), the assignment, and any handouts from class that may assist the tutor in working with you. You can come as often as you like. All we ask is that you don’t come in at the last minute!

In addition to the peer tutors, the Writing Center features many other resources, such as access to the Internet and Salem College library databases, grammar and ESL handbooks, and current style manuals (APA, MLA, CBE, Chicago) to assist you with the intimidating task of citing and documenting sources.

The philosophy of the Writing Center rests squarely on one tenet: peer tutors will not do your work for you. Tutors do not correct, edit, or fix up papers. Instead, they will help you gain greater control of the surface features of your writing, help you brainstorm ways to organize or develop your ideas, and (we hope) inspire you to continue revising.

As Director of the Writing Center, I am so proud of the work the peer tutors do each semester. Their selflessness, graciousness, and insight will help you feel more confident in your writing, and help you make great strides as a writer, no matter what your current skill level.

We look forward to working with you during the academic year!