University of Missouri

Writing Center tutors help students in face-to-face meetings and via the Online Writery.

March 24, 2021

Evelyn Stone, a senior studying accounting and economics, knows the benefits of having a second pair of eyes when it comes to writing.

“It’s really hard to read your own writing and see what’s wrong with it because you know what you’re trying to talk about,” Stone said. Despite being intimidated at first, Stone attended a tutoring session at the Writing Center — where a tutor helped her identify run-on sentences and points she could clarify better in her paper.

More than a second set of eyes, Writing Center tutors are thoroughly trained to review students’ work.

“The undergraduate tutors are honors students that go through a course-long training,” said Bailey Boyd, graduate assistant for the Writing Center. During the training, tutors learn about the principles of tutoring and writing basics.

Tutor Bella Ledonne, a junior studying broadcast journalism and economics, had used the Writing Center services several times before she took the job.

One thing she loved about the Writing Center was that she could talk through her ideas with the tutor at the preparatory stage. “Starting an essay can be really, really difficult,” Ledonne said. The tutoring session allowed her to have somebody to bounce those ideas off.

In the 2019–20 academic year, the Writing Center served more than 4,000 students in more than 15,000 appointments through its face-to-face tutoring and the Online Writery, which accepts submissions 24-7.

Students are encouraged to take advantage of the resources the Writing Center offers. “It’s 100% free,” Ledonne said. “It costs maybe an hour of your time. And you’ll get some really, really helpful feedback.”

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