Learn More About Writing

ESL/Later Bilingual and Multilingual Writers

The Walk-In Service is a peer tutoring service. The staff of undergraduate and graduate students work with a large cross-section of the campus community, primarily with questions that student writers have about their paper's thesis and structure. Peer tutors are not linguists and are not trained to do ESL work.

Tutors can discuss the meaning and expectations of assignments with you, as well as help you brainstorm a strategy for composing an essay. Rhetorical conventions differ from culture to culture; tutors can help familiarize you with the expectations for academic papers on this campus. Other issues they address include development of ideas, organization, introductions, support and evidence, analytic reading, and improving already strong writing.

Tutors do not edit or proofread; that is, they do not make grammatical corrections for writers. They can help you learn to recognize your own error patterns. If you take the lead and show them places in the paper where you have questions about how to say something, they can report on what native speakers would do in these particular instances. They can listen to you read a page or two of your writing out loud very slowly, answering questions where you have doubts and cueing your ear to customary English usage. Conversely, they can read a page out loud to you while you listen and make corrections. They can linetick errors (a method that helps you notice units/combinations of words on the page) and then wait while you reread and self-correct the grammar. These sessions, which can help you devise strategies for eliminating mistakes in the future, are generally limited to one to four pages of writing.

Reference books of particular help with language questions include Ann Raimes' Grammar Troublespots and the BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English: A Guide to Word Combinations. The first is available for you to consult at the Walk-In Service, the second in the main room of the Writing Workshop. Both are available for purchase at the campus store.

If you are looking for an editor or proofreader, the Writing Workshop maintains a list of freelance editors who will read work for a fee. There is a copy of this list at the main office, and also at all Walk-In Service locations.

Some international students find that they need more detailed and continuous linguistic training than the Walk-In Service can provide. The university currently has no centralized academic support service for language fluency. If you need additional help with ESL, we advise you to discuss your needs with your faculty advisor or committee chair and also with the dean of your college.

You might also contact Deborah Campbell at the English for Academic Purposes program about their second semester course, ENGLF 212, which is specifically a research paper course. The students can work on course papers, papers for publication, and theses and parts of theses and dissertations. All courses offered by English for Academic Purposes involve frequent tutorials and discussion of particular problems that a student is having.

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