The Writing Center for Graduate Students & Postdocs

Every writer needs a reader, and the Writing Center has a reader for every writer! Trained to respond to assignments in any discipline, Writing Center Fellows offer free, one-on-one conferences about writing at any stage in the process.

Located in New South, the Writing Center welcomes graduate students, working on:

  • seminar papers
  • research or grant proposals
  • articles
  • dissertations
  • fellowship or job applications
  • oral presentations.

The goal of each conference—whether brainstorming ideas, to developing a thesis, structuring an argument, or revising a draft is to develop strategies that will encourage students to become astute readers and critics of their own work. Although the Writing Center is not an editing or proofreading service, Fellows can help students learn techniques for improving sentences and checking mechanics.

Writing Fellows are there to listen, strategize, suggest, diagnose, and offer advice. Writing Center Fellows serve as sounding boards, careful readers, and helpful critics, and are able to help draw out ideas and possibilities that are implicit in a student's own thinking and writing. Writing Center conferences complement, but do not replace, the relationships students have with their teachers and advisors. All Writing Center appointments are confidential.

Visiting the Writing Center

To meet with a Writing Center Fellow, you can make an appointment in advance or stop by during drop-in hours. Come with whatever you've got—an assignment, ideas, rough notes, or a partial or full draft.

When classes are in session, appointments are recommended and available during both daytime and evening hours. Conferences are available only by appointment when classes are not in session.

50-Minute Appointments

Open to all undergraduate and graduate students, post-docs, faculty, and staff working on writing of any kind and at any stage in the process. Bring a prompt to brainstorm, a full draft, the beginnings of a cover letter, grant proposal, personal statement, or conference presentation!

Make a 50-minute Appointment

80-Minute Appointments

Reserved for graduate students, post-docs, and faculty working on research-based writing (typically 20+ pages). Bring ideas for a seminar paper or conference presentation, a full draft of an article, or selections of a dissertation! We can provide long-term help with planning for extended writing projects as well as one-off feedback sessions. Be sure the 80-minute schedule is selected from the drop-down menu at the top of the window.

Make an 80-minute Appointment


Drop-In Appointments

Available Sunday - Thursday 7 p.m. - 11 p.m. ET

Open to all undergraduates working on writing of any kind at any stage in the process. The drop-in sign-up sheet goes out in the Writing Center reception area at 6:45 p.m. every evening drop-ins are available. Students sign up for a slot (at 7, 8, 9, or 10 p.m.) on a first-come, first-served basis. Students may leave and come back for their appointment time or wait in the reception area until their appointment time. Any student not on site at their appointment time will lose their slot. 

 

Walk-and-Talk Appointments with Professor Wendy Belcher

Walk-and-Talk Appointments are currently suspended.

Reserved for graduate students, post-docs, and faculty. Comparative Literature Professor, Wendy Laura Belcher, author of Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Writing Success offers walking conferences, based on the Stanford study finding that an individual’s creativity increased by 60 percent when walking. These 45-minute morning walks through the tree streets of Princeton allow you to talk with Prof. Belcher about anything to do with writing in the social sciences or humanities, including dissertations, books, articles, or seminar papers. Bring a friend if you’d like to make it a group walk/talk. The early time of this conference (8:15 am) is intended to set you up for a day of productive writing. Be sure the Walk-and-Talk schedule is selected from the drop-down menu at the top of the window.

Have a quick question or not sure how to proceed? Text the Tortoise at (609) 759-1225.

How do I get to the Writing Center?

Conferences take place at the Writing Center in New South.  Enter New South and go up to the second floor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Writing Center Conferences

Our Scheduling System