Appointment Expectations
We are Peers Tutors
As peer tutors, our philosophy aims to minimize the authority dynamics that typically occur in student-instructor conversations. To that end, our tutors will not evaluate or line-edit your work, and any tutor who is an instructor cannot meet with their current students for tutoring sessions. Our appointments are focused dialogues about your composition and goals, as well as any concerns brought up during the session.
Our peer tutors cannot guarantee a certain grade or a “perfect” piece of writing. However, through years of experience, we have found that our conversational model helps both experienced and novice writers hone their craft.
What to Expect from an Appointment
The Writing Studio is an instructional outreach service provided by the English Department and Lower Division Studies operated and maintained by English department graduate students. To promote a learning environment, you can expect to converse with a peer tutor—an experienced reader—about your work and how to amplify your written voice.
Tutors will not compose, line-edit, or evaluate/grade anyone’s work. Instead tutors will discuss—in real time—possible ways to improve your work at any and every stage of the writing process.
If you have additional questions, visit our FAQs page or email our Associate Directors at writing@gsu.edu.
One-on-One Appointments
Anyone within the GSU Community has the opportunity to make one appointment a day provided a tutor is available:
- Undergraduate students can make one 25-minute appointment per day.
- Graduate students, staff/faculty, and alumni can make one 55-minute appointment per day.
Appointments that begin late are still beholden to the initial time constraints of the scheduled session. Appointments can be canceled or rescheduled up to one-minute prior to the original appointment's start date/time. We highly recommend using the text reminder and the iCal feature, to remind you of your appointment. Any questions about appointment length can be sent to writing@gsu.edu.
We allow a 5-minute grace period after the start of the appointment for tutees to join the session (both in-person and online), but after that period, tutors will mark the appointment as "missed." After three "missed" appointments, the tutee's account is frozen. You can re-activate your account by emailing the admins at writing@gsu.edu.
Do note: we review the appointment schedule daily before opening, and will adjust any appointment that violates our “One-on-One Appointment” policy (i.e., adjusting undergraduate appointments from 55-minutes to 25-minutes).
Group Appointments
If you are looking to schedule a group appointment or a larger workshop, contact the Writing Studio's Associate Directors at writing@gsu.edu. We are happy to accommodate group appointments and workshops, but they do need to additional time for necessary planning.
To schedule a group session, please contact us at writing@gsu.edu and include the following:
-
- the number of group members,
- desired day/time to meet (please offer several)
- class name/title
- what is the assignment
We ask that you make arrangements at least one week in advance of your appointment.
"Required" Studio Visits
We’re happy to have Georgia State faculty recommend the Writing Studio to their classes. Faculty support plays a significant role in encouraging students to take advantage of the Writing Studio for all composition projects. Studio appointments are open to all members of the GSU community, at all levels, in all programs, free of charge.
The Writing Studio has long-held policies that support students’ ownership and autonomy over their work, both for logistical and pedagogical reasons. Writing These policies include not writing on students’ papers, avoiding discussion of grades, and keeping private what happens between students and tutors. Pedagogically, we believe such policies support students’ growth as independent writers. Logistically, it is difficult for the Writing Studio to accommodate required visits due to limited resources.
For these reasons, we do not provide verification or details regarding a student’s choice to visit. However, students do have the option of supplying drafts and notes from their tutoring sessions.