Write Lab
What is the WriteLab?
The WriteLab provides English tutoring services for writing and formatting to WVC students. We have an in-person tutoring space where we invite students to come in and write, do homework, or visit a tutor. We also provide students access to an online Canvas extension, the eWriteLab, that offers Zoom appointments and online submissions for virtual tutor help.
Both in-person and online, we help you with your writing, whether for English, science, scholarship/college applications, resumés, or any other topic. We can help you with your writing at various stages of your writing process:
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- brainstorming,
- assignment formatting, and/or
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understanding the assignment.
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you have developed your ideas sufficiently,
- your ideas are organized in a way that makes sense or that flow,
- your draft is addressing the requirements of the prompt/assignment instructions, and/or
- there aren't significant sentence-level errors that impede meaning (e.g., run-on sentences, fragments, errors with punctuation, awkward word choice, etc.).
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The WriteLab is here to help with all of it!
Winter 2024 Quarter Hours
In-Person
Meet with a tutor or come in to write on Wenatchee campus in Mish ee Twie (MET) 1135:
Monday-Thursday 9:30am - 5:00pm
Meet to talk about your assignments on Omak campus in the Learning Support Center, Friendship Hall 205C:
Tuesday & Thursday 10:30am - 4:00pm
Wednesday & Friday 10:00am - 2:00pm
Note: Due to staffing shortages and unforeseeable weather or conditions, there may be temporary changes to in-person hours. We will do our best to keep you informed by email and through the Canvas eWriteLab announcement system for any changes that occur. Thank you for your patience in this area.
Online
Submit assignments (and their instructions) for tutor review virtually in the eWriteLab (Canvas). We accept submissions any day at any time, but tutors are only available to review submissions:
Monday-Thursday 8:00am - 9:00pm
Friday 8:00am - 8:00pm
Zoom
Meet with a tutor by appointment in Zoom through the eWriteLab:
Monday-Friday morning hours are available
Closed
We close on holidays and between quarters. This quarter, we close:
Holidays: Martin Luther King Day (Jan. 15th) and Presidents' Day (Feb. 19th)
Between Quarters: March 22nd - April 1st
Please enroll in the eWriteLab course on Canvas to submit papers online for tutors to review, to view our online writing and formatting resources, and to access the Zoom tutoring options.
Already enrolled? Click Here to access the eWriteLab!
Below in Submitting a Writing Assignment, we explain the process of how our online submissions and Zoom tutoring works.
Here's how to use our in-person tutoring:
- Our in-person tutoring is a first-come-first-serve service. Meaning, we do papers in the order they come in. We ask for patience, and please be prepared to wait if there is a line of students. We will get to your paper as fast as we can.
- We ask your paper be printed and to include your assignment's prompt (instructions) or an explanation of your assignment (if you don't have written instructions) to make sure we have a clear understanding of the assignment so we can give you accurate feedback on the notes we make on your paper.
- An assignment needs to be brought in at least 2 hours before an assignment is due to make sure we have time to provide you with quality constructive feedback that you have enough time to incorporate into your assignment before turning it in to your instructor.
- We do not allow drop off papers with in-person tutoring. Please stay present and available to talk to while we go over your paper.
Below in Submitting a Writing Assignment, we explain the process of how our In-Person tutoring works.
- Is there a Spanish-speaking tutor in the WriteLab?
Unfortunately, not yet. But we are in the process of looking for English tutors that are bilingual in Spanish. If you are a student who is bilingual and would like to become a tutor with us, please look at Applying to the WriteLab below.
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How do students look at previous submissions of a draft in Canvas?
The browser version of Canvas unfortunately does not allow students to look at their past submissions for an assignment. It is possible, however, for students to look at them through the Canvas Android and iOS app.
Here is how to access your previous submissions in the eWriteLab:
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- In the Canvas app, go to the eWriteLab course.
- Through the Home page, the Modules page, or the Grades page, find and open the Dropbox assignment.
- Click on the "Submission & Rubric" button in the page. It will take you directly to your most recent assignment submission.
- Click on the drop-down menu at the top of that submission page. From there, you can choose to look at any past submission you've made in the Dropbox, complete with feedback and comments from professors or tutors.
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These instructions also work for any course you'd like to find older submissions for.
Questions about the WriteLab? Contact Writelab@jxklpl.com
The Wenatchee WriteLab currently needs two more in-person tutors to look over papers and help keep the WriteLab space clean and inviting.
We ask that applicants
- be a WVC student who is eligible for Work Study,
- are fluent in spoken and written Spanish,
- know basic computer, printing, and Canvas mechanics, and
- have completed English 101 with at least a "B+" grade.
For more information, please contact the WriteLab Director, Janna Goodyear at jgoodyear@jxklpl.com.
Submitting a Writing Assignment
The WriteLab is designed to give students an opportunity to learn about how academic English writing and formatting works. By using WriteLab services, you can learn how to polish your work and avoid common errors in grammar, punctuation, and formatting. The WriteLab tutors are experienced in helping you organize and develop your ideas, put your thoughts into words, and apply the writing and formatting rules for English. Each aspect offered by the WriteLab can help you strengthen your writing in the way you need.
The in-person WriteLabs are spaces on Wenatchee and Omak campuses that allows students a place to go for writing, doing homework, tutoring help, or any other writing assignment need.
The way our in-person tutoring works is that you'll print out your assignment draft and the assignment instructions, bring it to our tutors at the tutor table, and wait for them to review it. Once they've reviewed it, they will call you over and go over their feedback with you.
The time a paper takes depends on the assignment length, degree of help required, and the number of students waiting for review. But generally, a 2-3 page paper can take about an hour to review and provide you with feedback.
Each tutor goes about their feedback a little differently. Some prefer to tell you about it with very few written marks, while other tutors will write all of it down before they speak to you. But regardless of how the tutors approach your feedback, we all will make marks on your printed draft where help is needed and tell you what each mark means and what we suggest you do to help improve the organization, flow, and structure of the assignment for your success.
We ask that you stay in the WriteLab while we go over your paper, and we also ask that you give us enough time before it's due to go over it.
We look forward to seeing you!
The eWriteLab is the virtual, Canvas extension of the WriteLab, and it offers the same type of tutoring help on writing assignments, as well as provides resources for how to build the formatting for MLA and APA and how to help structure sentences better.
To access the eWriteLab, you must first self-enroll in the eWriteLab before submitting a writing assignment for review or using our Zoom tutoring feature. Go to the above link and log in, and then you can add the eWriteLab to your Canvas Dashboard.
Once you've accessed the eWriteLab, you have the option to submit your assignment draft for review online. To do so:
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- You'll click on the "Online Submissions" button in the homepage.
- Please follow the rules on the Dropbox page that appears to submit your assignment draft. We require your most current draft and a copy of your assignment instructions as a Word document (.doc or .docx file), PDF document (.pdf file), or PowerPoint presentation (.ppt file) so we can still "write" comments on your actual draft.
- If you've submitted successfully, confetti will rain down on the page that appears, and a check mark will appear next to the submission receipt in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
- Please give our tutors 2-3 business days before the due date of the assignment to review your draft. Please do not re-submit your assignment or submit a new assignment before a tutor has gotten back to you about your first submission.
- To provide feedback, the tutor will leave comments on your draft and write an overall feedback comment under "Assignment Comments." If you would like to be notified when a tutor has left their overall comment, please follow these instructions.
- 24-48 hours after providing our feedback, we will "grade" the assignment "0" to clear it from our queue in Canvas. *This does not reflect an actual grade of the assignment.
- You are welcome to leave comments asking questions about our feedback both on your draft and in the Assignment Comments section. Please allow 24 hours for tutors to reply.
- When you are ready to re-submit the draft or submit a new assignment, please repeat the above instructions and submit to the Dropbox again by clicking on "New Attempt" on the Dropbox page. The rules on the Dropbox page apply to every submission.
Note: The way we ask students to submit assignments to the Dropbox for review is the same way professors often ask students to submit assignments in Canvas.
If you have any general questions, please ask them through our Ask Us Anything! assignment or by contacting Writelab@jxklpl.com.
Please be polite and respectful at all times. Follow the same rules of courtesy that are required of you in your online and face-to-face classes and tutoring situations.
We look forward to helping you!
The eWriteLab also offers Zoom tutoring appointments that allows students to discuss planning or revising their assignment drafts virtually with a tutor one-on-one. We currently offer morning hours only.
For how to set up and go to an appointment with us:
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- You'll go to the eWriteLab in Canvas and click on the "Zoom Tutoring" button in the homepage.
- Once there, click on the "Book Your Zoom Session" button to take you to a Booking form.
- Please choose the date and time that works best for you. Then, please fill in your name, the email address you're most likely to check, the class or application the assignment is for, and what you would like to discuss in your Zoom session.
- Click "Book" to finalize the appointment. An email will be sent to you with a reminder and a link to use on the day and time of your appointment. If you no longer want or can no longer go to the appointment, this email also contains a cancellation option.
- After booking the appointment, if the appointment is to help revise a draft, please submit your draft and your assignment instructions by clicking on the "Submit Your Document" button in the Zoom Tutoring page. If the appointment is for help on planning a draft, please make sure to submit any documents you'd like us to have to help us prepare for the meeting.
- On the day and time of the appointment, you'll go to the link in the email reminder to access the Zoom meeting. If that link does not work, please use the "Zoom Meeting" button in the Zoom Tutoring page in Canvas to go to your appointment.
- Please make sure to be on time for the meeting. We allot one hour per session, and if a student misses their time, we may have to cut our feedback and discussion short or cancel altogether as there are multiple appointments in a day.
If you have any questions or concern, please contact Writelab@jxklpl.com.
We look forward to Zooming with you!