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.
Using 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!
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.
Graduate Write-Together Sessions
Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. ET. (Currently suspended)
Reserved for graduate students working on long-term projects, who are seeking collective, structured writing time. Write-Togethers are scheduled Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. ET. and offer a community-based writing experience on Zoom. Upon joining the session, a Fellow will facilitate a brief goal-setting exercise, after which you'll work on your project while remaining on Zoom (camera on or off). At the end of the session, you'll participate in a 10-15 minute debrief conversation aimed to set you up to keep the momentum going.
The Writing Lab
Sunday - Thursday 8 p.m. - 11 p.m. ET (Suspended until September, 2021)
Having a hard time creating structure around your writing and research? Looking for a sense of community with other writers/dissertators? Don’t go it alone! Join our Zoom-based virtual lab to write with peers, consult Fellows as needed, and tackle your short and long-term writing goals!
All times are Eastern Time (UTC-4:00). If you're having trouble joining, be sure you're signed in to Zoom with your Princeton account.
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.
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.
