Writing Services FAQ

Writing Services is designed to help you learn how to improve your academic writing. By giving you suggestions on how to develop your writing skills, the goal is to help you develop your writing as well as support you in the process of completing your written academic assignments. Working with written assignments that are required as part of your course work at Carleton University, a tutor will help you examine and improve your overall writing process, introduce you to helpful tools and strategies for academic writing at different stages of the process. Meeting with a tutor also gives you access to a ‘live’ reader of your work before you actually hand in a written assignment. This can be helpful to ensure that your ideas are coming across clearly and are easy for your reader to follow. Talking about your writing with a tutor can also help clarify your ideas for yourself. We will not do your writing for you, but we will help you to discover principles for effective writing and hone writing strategies that work for you.

We are staffed by graduate student tutors from a variety of departments at Carleton University. Tutors are given specific training on how to help other writers improve their writing. They are also taught how to provide assistance in a supportive and non-judgemental fashion.

You will have a 40 minute individual session with one of our tutors. A number of things may occur during your session. The tutor will ask you questions about the paper you are writing, and you will have opportunities to ask your tutor some questions. The tutor will offer suggestions for planning and revising your writing. Together, you may work through the whole essay or only a part of it. *Please remember to bring the assignment sheet for the paper you are working on. This will help us better understand the expectations of your instructor.

Feel free to bring whatever ideas, notes, questions or writing you have, to your session. We are happy to work with you at any stage of the process, so bring whatever you have so far, even if that is only some questions about how to get started. We do ask that you bring your assignment sheet with you to the session. This helps us to get an understanding of the assignment and provide you with better guidance.

No. We will help you learn how to proofread your writing, but we won’t do it for you. That would make us better editors, but wouldn’t help you become a better writer.

Writing Services is free of charge to all students at Carleton – undergraduate, graduate, full-time, part-time, special, faculty…

No. All writers benefit from receiving feedback on their writing from an interested reader and even accomplished writers face difficulties in the process. We see students who are new to academic writing as well experienced writers, such as Ph.D. candidates.

We are located on the 4th floor of the library in the Centre for Student Academic Support (CSAS). We operate with a drop-in appointment service. l

We now offer a collaborative writing space where students are encouraged to work on their essays and other written assignments. A few writing tutors will circulate through the space, offering quick tips on writing for those interested.
Writing Workshops: The staff at Writing Services work with professors and TAs to design and deliver tailor-made workshops for students writing in their courses. We will also deliver workshops for course TAs on various aspects of writing: talking about writing assignments in discussion groups, evaluating and responding to student essays, etc

For more information, contact Writing Services by email at csas@carleton.ca.

Writing Services does not provide writing support for students with take-home exams, resumes or graduate applications. For take home exams, please be advised that we do not provide support for these assignments unless we have received explicit permission from the course instructor. Students with resumes can visit Career Services. They provide expert help in many aspects of the job search process. Lastly, we do not provide graduate students writing support with funding applications. Students are advised to seek help from the Graduate Student Advisory (GSA) or their supervisors.

Writing Services is happy to provide assistance to students completing group assignments. Regular appointments can be made with a tutor for the group of students involved in writing the assignment. If all members cannot attend the tutorial session, please be advised that the tutor will only work on the sections of the paper written by students who are present in the session.

Writing Services does provide assistance by email for quick questions related to writing assignments or general writing concerns. Email csas@carleton.ca and a writing tutor will respond to your question within one business day. Please note: if you have more complex writing issues or have an assignment you would like to discuss, an in-person appointment will be required.