Who are the tutors at the Online Composition Hub?
The tutors at the Online Composition Hub are all peer tutors, which means that they are either graduate or undergraduate students. Tutors working for the Online Composition Hub have a strong background in writing, have an interest in teaching, and undergo professional development to meet the needs of students in Continuing Education. While our tutors have a variety of writing experiences, they are all committed to supporting you in your writing.
I am wanting to schedule a "synchronous" appointment, but there are only "asynchronous" appointments available. Can tutors switch the type of appointment that is available?
At the Online Composition Hub, we design our schedule to include as many different options as possible. Tutors can sometimes conduct asynchronous appointments in real-time (or vice-versa), but this is not a guarantee and is dependent on the availability of your tutor. The tutors at the Online Composition Hub are all students, and may not be able to accommodate schedule changes. However, if you would like to switch the type of appointment, email your tutor in advance of your appointment time and ask if they are available to change the appointment type.
I noticed your website says that you will not edit papers. Does this mean you can't help me with grammar?
We can definitely work with you to improve your grammar and style. When we say we are not an editing or proofreading service, we mean that our mission is educational and not in guaranteeing every grammar error in the paper will be addressed. Editing and proofreading services are usually paid services that go line-by-line and guarantee all errors will be corrected. This is outside of our mission here at the Online Composition Hub. Our purpose is really in educating students about self-editing strategies and in working with you to develop tools that you can use in all of your future writing. In every session, our tutors are focused on two things: How we can together improve the writing in front us, and what skills we can cultivate for your next paper. So in a typical tutoring session, we would definitely highlight grammar issues that we see, especially those that impact the readability of your paper or errors that occur repeatedly in the paper. We will not necessarily identify every spelling/ grammar error, especially those that services like Google Docs spellcheck could catch.
My paper is too long for my tutor to get through in one session. What should I do?
There are a couple of things you can do if your paper is too long to reasonably work on in 1 hour-long session. You can identify specific sections of your paper that you would like to focus on or specific content areas that you would like to address. You are also more than welcome to book multiple sessions and let your tutor know which sections of the paper to look at in each session.
Why am I unable to book an appointment?
There are several reasons why you may be experiencing difficulties booking an appointment. During busy times of the semester (such as finals week), we only allow each student two appointments per week. If you have booked more than 2 appointments in one week during this time, you will be prevented from making another appointment. Another reason that you may be unable to book an appointment is due to repeated violations of our policies. For example, students who miss more than 3 appointments without notice will be prevented from making further appointments without approval from the Coordinators. If you are still unsure why you cannot book an appointment, feel free to email us!
I submitted my paper for comments and my asynchronous appointment time is over. Why don't I have feebdack yet?
The asynchronous appointment times are actually 24 hour windows that your tutor has to look over your paper. The "start" of your asynchronous appointment is the time by which you either have to email your paper to your tutor or upload the paper to your appointment form. From the start of your appointment time, your tutor then has 24 hours to provide feedback. You will receive feedback on your paper within 24 hours of the start of your asynchronous appointment time.