Improve Your Writing and Public Speaking

The Writing Center is available to help you with writing assignments for PFW campus classes and public speaking for academic-related events. Our consultants can help you develop and support your thesis, understand the rhetorical situation, organize ideas, cite sources, improve clarity, incorporate peer and instructor comments, and more. Think of us like coaches, working with you and offering you tools to succeed.

How to Get Help

We offer both in-person and online options! Appointments are 45 minutes long and scheduled through TutorTrac. If you need help or want to see if there are same-day appointments available, call or stop in to ask the first-floor library service desk. Be sure to have information about your assignment at the appointment: the assignment sheet, due dates, notes, research, and/or any drafts or outlines. It's also great to think through what you'd like to talk about with the consultant ahead of time.

If you can't find an appointment time that works for you, we have the eConsult service: submit your consultation request through our online form and in about two or three business days we'll send it back to your PFW email address with our comments and suggestions.

Whether you meet with us virtually, in person, or use the eConsult service, we’ll email you a consultation summary at the end of your appointment that you can give to your instructor as "proof" and also use to continue revisions on your work. If you lose the email or accidentally delete it, you can print your visit history on TutorTrac or let us know you need it to be resent!

We're also available through our instant messaging system! At the bottom of each page on our website is a chat box that you can use to ask quick questions.

What Help is Available in the Writing Center? How to Schedule in TutorTrac

Hours

The Writing Center and its Speech and Presentation Service will be open for the Summer 2022 semester from May 16 to August 4.

We will be closed on all university holidays and suspended class days, including Memorial Day (May 30) and Independence Day (July 5).

Please check TutorTrac for the most up-to-date availability.

Our Policies

Because we have a limited number of staff but serve all courses on the Purdue Fort Wayne campus, we must enforce several policies:

You may schedule one appointment per day, per class. (If you schedule more than one appointment per day for the same class, the first appointment of the day will be kept and the following appointments for the same class will be canceled.)
You may schedule up to three appointments per six-day period, per class.
If you are more than 10 minutes late to a consultation, you may lose your appointment time; we will hold appointments for 10 minutes after the scheduled start time before assisting a walk-in.
Please do not overlap submissions to the online consultation service with in-person or virtual appointments for the same assignment.
Plan to have no more than 10 pages of text consulted on in a single appointment. (If the assignment is more than 10 pages long, please provide a 10-page range of text to focus on during the appointment.)
We do not provide transcription or dictation services.
We are not a drop-off proofreading or editing service.

Contact

Writing Center
Helmke Library First Floor
260-481-5740
[email protected]

Kristine Frye
Director, Writing Center and Library Service Desk
Helmke Library 106
260-481-0257
[email protected]

Lindsey Greene
Writing Center Administrative Assistant
Helmke Library 104
260-481-6312
[email protected]

The Draft

Plan, curate, and write using our tips and tricks in our blog, The Draft.